Rugby Union: Bath hoping for another favour
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Your support makes all the difference.NEXT Saturday Bath play Wasps in a match that will have a critical bearing on the Courage Championship, but for now it is wholly agreeable for the champions to sit back and watch others do their dirty work for them, writes Steve Bale.
Last week West Hartlepool did Bath a favour by swatting Wasps. This afternoon Wasps can do the same by tweaking the tail of Leicester Tigers at Sudbury. Oh we of little faith who wondered if this was the season for Bath to take a breather; today they are at Gloucester.
Still, there is a marathon to be run and the great imponderable will be how the big three will be affected when their England players take a preordained, pre-World Cup rest. And it is early days to pass judgement on Wasps' and Leicester's new styles.
Hence the request from Rob Smith, the Wasps coach, and Dean Ryan, his injured captain, for patience - both from the players trying to spread the ball and those watching it. Besides, as Ryan put it: 'The key thing is how we react when it doesn't go well.'
This is an understated response to the events in Hartlepool, and Ryan's dislocated shoulder means he has no immediate part. Likewise Tony Russ, the Leicester coaching director, rebuts the notion that the Tigers' difficulties in trying to play like Wallabies are more than teething troubles.
Without Ryan and Lawrence Dallaglio, Wasps reshape their pack by moving Matt Greenwood into the back row.
The Scottish Rugby Union moved hastily last night to rescind its decision to follow the International Rugby Board's minimum requirements by allowing immigrant players to play for Scotland after a one-year residency period.
This was the SRU's embarrassed response to a wave of criticism led by their 1990 Grand Slam captain, David Sole, who said he was considering resignation as team manager of Scotland Under- 19s over this apparent cheapening of a Scottish cap.
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