Callard expects a fresh inquisition

Zurich Premiership: Bath's new coach has high standards to live up to as he contemplates 10 months of toil

When Jonathan Callard was introduced to Bath he thought he was attending an inquisition. "It was the most terrifying experience of my life," he said. He was summoned before a panel headed by the inquisitor-in-chief, Jack Rowell.

When Jonathan Callard was introduced to Bath he thought he was attending an inquisition. "It was the most terrifying experience of my life," he said. He was summoned before a panel headed by the inquisitor-in-chief, Jack Rowell.

"The meeting went on and on and on. 'What were my strengths and weaknesses?' 'Was I married or single?' 'What were my commitments?' 'What were my ambitions?' And so on. It was surreal. At the end of it I began to understand what it was all about. I started to appreciate the ethos and the culture of the club and I was bitten by it."

That was 12 years ago, and what Rowell wanted to know was whether Callard, a student at Cheltenham and a full-back for Newport, had it in him to join the Bath family. What nobody knew, least of all Callard, is that he would inherit Rowell's role as head coach of arguably the proudest club in England.

It has come about, of course, by the promotion of Andy Robinson, a Bath fixture-and-fitting, to the England coaching job, a development that last Christmas would have been unthinkable. Bath had a nightmare of it in mid-season. Unable to win a game in December, they made early exits from the Heineken European Cup and the National Knock-Out, and after each defeat speculation mounted over Robinson's future. Four months later,following a 15-match winning run, there was fresh speculation. With Clive Woodward taking a manager's role, would Robinson coach England? It was not as straightforward as it seemed.

"I wanted him to stay," Callard said. "Some fantastic things were beginning to happen here, but he was snatched away. I'm sure that deep down it hurt him to leave this place. It would have been a huge wrench. He's still here in spirit and he'll always be welcome back. If I need any help or advice it's nice to know he's only a phone-call away. He'll have to be objective from now on but I know the first result he'll look for on a Saturday will be Bath's."

Callard, who has been given a one-year contract, admits that he was "very apprehensive" when he was offered Robinson's job, although the procedure was nowhere near as intimidating as his interrogation in 1988. "This is a huge post for me and I have to prove I can do the job, to myself more than anything. Robbo's an outstanding coach. He's a winner, a fighter. As a flanker he was small but he was never physically beaten, and mentally he's strong. He doesn't just preach, he rolls his sleeves up. He will take the responsibility of changing English rugby."

Five years ago Callard, who has a master's degree in educational management, became a professional when the International Board, with almost as fine a disregard for the laws as William Webb Ellis, threw the game open and into utter chaos. Somehow it has survived a near civil war, the threatened expulsion of England from the European Championship, various boycotts, walk-outs and shoot-outs, the sacrifice of Richmond and London Scottish and the worst excesses of millionaire owners who equated professional rugby with football.

"We are so young, and growing pains have been inevitable," Howard Thomas, chief executive of English First Division Rugby, said. "We will continue to have growing pains but there's increased trust between ourselves and the RFU and we are in business together. There's light at the end of the tunnel and it's not a train rushing towards us. Some clubs are reporting an increase in season-ticket sales of 40 per cent and there's an upsurge in the number of women supporters. We are also attracting the pissed-off football fan."

The Zurich Premiership (the parent company have taken over from Allied Dunbar) welcome Rotherham at the expense of Bedford but, unlike their counterparts in football, not many rugby players will be opening Swiss bank accounts. The wage cap of £1.8m per squad - as Dick Best complained last week, not every club is sticking to it - might just be enough to cover David Beckham's small left toe. EFDR hope to raise £7.5m over the next three years with the promotion of the commercial brand "Premier Rugby", in which businesses can relate to all 12 clubs. The slogan is "Fitter, faster, harder", and it could equally apply to the season as a whole.

One of the aims of the Rob Andrew/Club England plan was to reduce the workload of leading players. With the Premiership leading into championship play-offs, the league alone spans 10 months. The final of the Tetley's Bitter Cup will be in February rather than May, but the basic structure is still far from ideal. The plan for one Heineken Cup game a month has gone by the board, and the fixture congestion in the new year will test the squad system of every club. Most will be exposed.

There are other "growing pains", namely the clubs' share of the RFU's commercial rights and the question of promotion and relegation. Andrew's plan made no provision for it, but on Thursday EFDR voted for a play-off, as happened last season, between the bottom club in the Premiership and the top club in Division Two. The meeting was declared unconstitutional by the Second Division, whose chairman, Worcester's Cecil Duckworth, wants automatic promotion and relegation. Once again the ball is in the RFU's court, although if Duckworth does not get his way it could end up in a court of law.

It is not an issue that concerns Bath, a club who fit the RFU's image of an élite entity. Callard has spent two and a half years assisting Robinson and before that had a dressing-room view of Woodward's coaching methods at the Recreation Ground. "I've learned a hell of a lot and I'm lucky to be in the right place at the right time. I'm passionate about the club and I've been heavily involved with the squad. It's fallen into place. The important thing is to continue the development but it was a worry when Robbo went. Everything could have changed.

"We worked very closely as a team and we went through some rough times. It probably makes you a better coach. Our strength was that we kept reaffirming our beliefs and our ideas for bringing on the youngsters. It would have been so easy to go back to the old heads, old ideas, but Robbo demonstrated leadership. He protected the players and prevented them from losing faith. That in itself is an art. It was partly down to his reputation as a character but also his technical knowledge. The players never lost respect, although some supporters did. In terms of our development, the players are crucial."

So what about Callard's development? At 34, when Matt Perry and company were engaged in the World Cup, Callard resurrected his playing career. "I played more games than I should have," he said. "I should have said cheerio, no sentiment, let's get on with it."

Bath have replaced one former back-row stalwart with another, John Hall. Hall, the former director of rugby who left the club under a big black cloud a few seasons ago, returns, after two years with Garryowen, as a part-time forwards' coach, specialising in line-out work, with John Moore concentrating on the scrum. "Whatever happened to John is water under the bridge," Callard said. "He's another passionate Bath man. He has great knowledge and the respect of the players."

The same could be said of the captain, Ben Clarke. "There was an idea that Ben would assist in the forwards' coaching, but I wanted him to be a player," Callard said. "If he was doing two jobs his game would be distracted. When you look at the Bath captains they have all been blessed with something special and it's not just leadership and tactical nous. Ben epitomises that."

Another key member of Callard's team is Mark Spivey, the former Australian decathlete who used to look after the fitness of the Bristol squad. "He is doing an extraordinary job," Callard said, "particularly in relation to weight-training. That has become such an important part of the game since professionalism."

With the retirement of Victor Ubogu, Bath have recruited David Barnes from Harlequins. They have also signed the lock/back-row forward Mark Gabey from London Irish and, at the end of last season, Rob Thirlby from Saracens, the latter joining a threequarter line that will give Robinson every excuse to visit the Rec. When the Six Nations' Championship makes demands on Bath, Callard can call up Jeremy Guscott and Phil de Glanville.

Despite their end-of-season flamboyance, Bath, who haven't won a domestic competition for four years, were outgunned by Leicester. "They're a great outfit and they're still out in front," Callard said. "They have probably got the strongest pack in Britain, their backs are underrated and they have an excellent defence. Anybody who wants to compete with Leicester has got to take them on at the front. We've got to find ways of breaking them down." How? "Hmm."

The Heineken Cup - Callard scored all of Bath's points in their epic 19-18 victory over Brive in the 1998 final - is close to Callard's heart. "To my mind it supersedes the Six Nations. As a club man the beauty of it is that it unites the community like no other contest. The Premiership will be more difficult to win, although I don't think it's impossible to succeed in both. The foundations here have been laid and players like Matt Perry, Ian Balshaw and Steve Borthwick have to take it to another level. The expectancy at the club is enormous."