- Bath have reached the Premiership final after beating Sale in a crushing semi-final.
- The Somerset club will now bid to win their first Premiership title since 1996.
- Finn Russell kicked 16 points to lead Bath to the final against Northampton.
After Finn Russell’s shining moment on Saturday, the camera panned to Bruce Craig’s box behind the pillar. The Bath owner, seated next to billionaire benefactor Sir James Dyson, is said to have muttered: ‘I think he’s worth my money.’
Craig’s track record on big-money rugby investments is questionable. Sam Burgess: Disappeared without a trace just one year after joining the company. Toby Faletau: A regular on the medical bed. Jamie Roberts, Stephen Donald, Danny Cipriani: Beat the record.
I remember Mike Ford, my coach at the time, looking at me as if he had seen a ghost when we made eye contact in the Vineyard Hotel restaurant in Cape Town in 2015. He was having lunch with iconic but faded Springbok lock Victor Matfield. The move never materialized, but you get the point.
Bass has always liked attractive contracts. Because, after all, it is a charming city. But their bright new recruits rarely lived up to their billing. It was a desperate effort to return the club to its glory days in 1998, when the likes of Jeremy Guscott won their last trophy.
There are finally signs of a return on investment from Scottish magician Russell. They picked him at number 10 in his prime and on Saturday he kicked 16 points to lead Bath towards the final against Northampton. Russell wasn’t in the best shape that day. He was kicked out by George Ford, but it didn’t matter.
Bath are finally showing signs of a return on their investment in Scottish magician Finn Russell.
Russell kicked 16 points to lead Bath towards Saturday’s final against Northampton.
What mattered was the impact he had on his teammates. They know he’s a basketball player. They watched him absentmindedly scroll through a playlist on his phone while he went through his kicking routine before kickoff.
He changed the spirit of the team from one where confidence was shattered to a team that fought until the end when the going got tough. Yes, they will be underdogs against Northampton, but their odds are much better than they were 12 months ago.
“He’s an unbelievably good rugby player,” said his halfback partner Ben Spencer. ‘He has a calmness and class that permeates the whole team. He gives us a lot of confidence. He allows the boys to be themselves, and what he has added to this group this year has been incredible.
‘If you look at his highlights, you see the cross-field kicks and long passes, but underneath there’s a really strong defensive game. Some of the tackles and hits he took were similar to those in the back row. He reads the game very well.’
Two months ago, Russell tore a muscle in his groin from the bone. Few expected him to be fit for these play-offs, and without him Sale might have won comfortably. Russell’s presence changed the tone of Rec. It’s been a rocky few years for West Country crowds, but before kick-off on Saturday fans were gathered at the box office asking what the finals arrangements would be.
The stand was louder than I have ever heard. Old Scott himself was among them, drinking a glass of red wine, and he must have felt as if he had been transported back to his glory days. There was also applause for the saxophonist who transformed the stadium into a Puerto Banus-style beach bar.
‘This club has had some dark days since I’ve been here,’ added Spencer. ‘To go from that to where we are now is huge. We sold Rec when we were bottom of the league. These fans are like nothing I’ve ever seen. They keep showing up.’
Bath’s million-pound man Russell is rugby’s greatest entertainer. A fire juggling, mature playmaker who should be a frontrunner to wear the number 10 shirt for the British and Irish Lions next year. And if he can pull off one of his greatest achievements by beating Northampton on Saturday, Craig could finally feel like he got his money’s worth.
