Bath landed three trophies in the 2024-25 campaign but last season fell three times at the semi-final hurdle.
Not a lot changed for a club that has been upwardly mobile since the arrival of head coach Johann van Graan, below, in the summer of 2022, but the season ending injury suffered by England and Lions prop Will Stuart in December proved defining.
Bath’s bomb squad bench packed less explosive with Thomas du Toit having to start more and with Finn Russell missing the final weeks of the season, some of the knowhow of the previous campaign was lost, as was shown in Exeter Chiefs’ comeback ...