Todd Blackadder says he sacrificed Bath's hopes of winning at Saracens to protect squad and 'break the habit of breaking players'

Bath director of rugby made no apologies for making 13 changes ahead of their heavy 50-27 defeat at Saracens, as he instead held back his first-team for future matches

Todd Blackadder rotated 13 of his starting line-up for the 50-27 defeat against Saracens (Getty)

Todd Blackadder admitted he brought his Bath side to Saracens “to get a point” after choosing to make 13 changes to his starting line-up, effectively waving the white flag, due to player welfare concerns and a preference to instead have his best players fit and available for next week’s clash with Exeter and their European campaign.

Despite occupying fourth place in the Premiership table before the 50-27 demolition at Allianz Park, director of rugby Blackadder elected to rest the likes of Taulupe Faletau, Tom Dunn and Dave Attwood as well as England pair Zach Mercer and Joe Cokanasiga, who were with the national team at a three-day training camp until Tuesday.

Taking on a Saracens side that has now claimed a maximum 25 points from their opening five matches - the first side in Premiership history to do so - is hard enough without what is effectively a first team, but Blackadder stood by his decision and admitted that while he always prepares his sides to win matches, the likelihood of securing a win here, as opposed to next Friday’s clash with the Chiefs and the Heineken Challenge Cup visit of Toulouse to the Rec, resulted in the squad rotation and adjusting their targets towards either a scoring or losing bonus point.

“We prepared to beat them,” Blackadder said after watching his side concede eight tries in return to the three that they scored. “We actually prepared really well, when you look at the team that we put out we did give some guys opportunities that probably haven’t had a lot of rugby so far. You don’t prepare to lose, so we backed ourselves, we back anybody in the jersey to get out there and do the job and when you don’t you learn some lessons from it. At times you’ve got to do these things.

“We came here to get a point. We’ve got Exeter next Friday and we’ve got a massive month.

“I stand by the decision, absolutely stand by it. We’re doing the best thing for our team and our players, regardless of what you guys think the team we selected was here to perform and we will prepare for another game next week.”

The move may not go down well with Bath fans who made the trip to north London for what proved a third heavy defeat against Saracens in as many games, but the New Zealander stressed that the game is likely to move more in the direction of mass squad rotation in the future in an effort to combat the alarming number of injuries being seen presently.

Somewhat admirably, Blackadder stressed the need to “break the habit of breaking people”, but whether that sticks with the clubs fans who pay money to watch the side is yet to be seen.

“We’re trying to break the habit of breaking people all the time as in the past we’ve gone into a window of massive games with a lot of injuries, and then we are selecting these guys to step in and play teams like Exeter and the Champions Cup, so I’d rather give them exposure,” Blackadder added.

“I’d rather bring these young guys to play against the best so that they know what the benchmark is. That way we can freshen our squad up for next week. Otherwise we’ll just end up playing our best team every single week and we’ll end up breaking guys. I just don’t think that’s the way forwards.

“We only really had Zach Mercer and Joe at the [England] camp so we didn’t really consider them off the back of it. You take all of those things into account, like workloads. We played basically the same team for five or six weeks and you’ve got to freshen things up at some point.”

Bath were no match for Saracens as they leaked eight tries (Getty)

Pushed on the point that fans may not be happy with the rotation, Blackadder - who this week signed a one-year contract extension through to the summer of 2020, added: “I understand. We select a squad, regardless of who people think is the best team, and we expect everyone to perform. There was a lot of experience across the team. Our drivers were still there and some young guys who didn’t let the team down.”

Saracens boos Mark McCall would not be drawn on the matter or on the team that they faced, and instead chose to praise full-back Alex Goode, who turned in yet another man-of-the-match performance with two try assists for Liam Williams - who bagged his second hat-trick of the season - as well as a try of his own.

Alex Goode scored Saracens' second try against Bath (Getty)

Despite Goode’s form for his club that spans over the last 12 months, he remains out of the England reckoning, yet McCall praised his attitude in refusing to give up hope of returning to Eddie Jones’ squad and improving his game as a result.

“It says a lot about his hunger to play at the highest level,” said McCall. “He still wants to play for England, that’s the one thing you need to know, and he works incredibly hard for it. Harder than people think, a lot of people think it is natural ability but he’s worked hard to be quicker, to get his body in better shape and you could see that today. It wasn’t just his footwork, he looked quick today and that’s as good a performance as he’s put in for us. But he has put in 100s of those in fairness. It was an incredible performance.”

But there are concerns for captain Brad Barritt, who left the field in the 23rd minute with blood pouring from his left cheek, and McCall did not sound optimistic in his assessment of the centre’s prognosis.

“He’s got an eye injury and he’s away in hospital. It’ll either be a deep scar, a cut close to the bone or it could be worse than that.”