{"id":622762,"date":"2026-06-05T14:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T14:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/622762\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T14:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T14:15:10","slug":"jeremy-guscott-at-a-loss-over-england-snub-compares-springbok-to-martin-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/622762\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeremy Guscott ‘at a loss’ over England snub, compares Springbok to Martin Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Jeremy Guscott, one of the greatest finishers in rugby history, believes the key to success for Bath against Leicester Tigers this weekend lies in how they start.<\/p>\n

Home advantage in the Gallagher PREM play-offs is at stake when second plays third at the Recreation Ground in a repeat of last year\u2019s final.<\/p>\n

Bath, the English champions, have lost only five times in the league all season but three of those have come in their past four outings and their lead over Tigers is down to two points.<\/p>\n

Guscott scored 143 tries for the club during a legendary career and says watching his old team under Johann van Graan has helped him fall back in love with the game he graced a quarter of a century and more ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI take or leave rugby depending on how exciting and enjoyable it is,\u201d the man dubbed the Prince of Centres admits. \u201cI\u2019m loving it at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bath must start fast<\/p>\n

He accepts, however, that Bath<\/a>\u2018s star-studded team have \u201call been just a little bit off\u201d for a month or so and need to get it right from the opening kick-off to beat Tigers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s far from panic stations,\u201d says Guscott, who remains England\u2019s fourth highest try scorer, second only to Will Greenwood among non wings. \u201cIf Bath get everything right on Saturday it is going to be very hard for Leicester.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir challenge, for me, is starting quicker. If there is one tiny thing I\u2019d like to see them do better it\u2019s start quick; be in the game right from the first whistle.\u201d<\/p>\n

The stakes are huge given history suggests finishing third is a death sentence.<\/p>\n

Seb Atkinson makes England vow ahead of Nations Championship and the \u2018only thing\u2019 that matters to Gloucester<\/a><\/p>\n

No PREM<\/a> club ending the regular season in that position has reached the final since 2010 when Saracens became only the second side (after London Irish in 2009) to buck the trend in 20 years of the play-offs.<\/p>\n

Bath\u2019s downturn in form since late April has seen them lose to Northampton, Exeter and Bristol in the league and Bordeaux in the semi-finals of the Investec Champions Cup.<\/p>\n

In those games they fell behind 21-7 to Saints, 13-0 to Exeter and 24-12 to Bordeaux. Only against Bristol was the damage done later.<\/p>\n

Their prospects this weekend are not improved by the continued absence of Finn Russell. Santi Carreras starts at 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe perspective of Bath is they\u2019re a team that waits for its bench to come,\u201d Guscott adds. \u201cI think that\u2019s the view the public has. They need to change that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through autumn, winter and into spring Bath\u2019s 23-man package proved irresistible. The sight of Thomas du Toit, Alfie Barbeary, Santi Carreras et al coming on to close out games put the fear of dread into opponents.<\/p>\n

PREM Rugby round 18: Predictions, teams, kick-off times, how to watch and referee appointments<\/a><\/p>\n

As Guscott, says, it is hardly a crisis. Bath have lost at home once all season and if they beat Leicester they will stay at the Rec for the semi-final. But recent form means they can\u2019t take that as read.<\/p>\n

\u201cBath have to be faster starters: start winning games before the bench come on,\u201d he continues. \u201cThey\u2019ve got to have scored two or three tries by then, have really put the opposition under the cosh.<\/p>\n

\u201cBe a side that when a team goes to play them they think, \u2018Jesus, they\u2019re coming right from the beginning. And they\u2019ve got a bench coming on after 45 minutes\u2019.<\/p>\n

Guscott, 60, makes no secret of being a \u201chuge\u201d fan of the club, albeit one who also probably has bigger expectations \u201cbecause, I think, if you played you\u2019re looking for perfection.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know it\u2019s impossible to attain, but it doesn\u2019t stop you trying to achieve it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love Bath. I was born in Bath, stay in Bath, raised in Bath. You can\u2019t help following a club you started playing for when you were seven years old.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loose Pass: Experiences that remind you why you fell in love with rugby<\/a><\/p>\n

Until director of rugby Van Graan arrived from Munster four seasons ago he concedes there were times it was \u201chard to go down and watch\u201d.<\/p>\n

Guscott adds: \u201cFor a number of years we had some great names down there, both playing and coaching. And it just never happened. It\u2019s tough to watch a team you love just not get it together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe quality of rugby was so sporadic and different. It wasn\u2019t consistent. There was one season, when George Ford was at 10 and they got to the final, where the rugby was sublime. Other years were more challenging to watch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen Johann arrived and I remember Bath winning the last four games of his first season to go from bottom to eighth. That was the beginning. Then Finn Russell and Thomas du Toit arrived.<\/p>\n

\u201cTime stands still when Finn has the ball, as it does for really good players. As for Thomas, he must be the most consistent performer I\u2019ve seen. Martin Johnson never had a poor game. I don\u2019t think Thomas has either.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guscott expects it to be tense on Saturday. \u201cIf you\u2019re playing you can\u2019t help but be nervous, given what\u2019s at stake,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Max Ojomoh vital<\/p>\n

But he is confident his hometown team have the wherewithal to overcome a very good Leicester side, particularly with centre Max Ojomoh back fit and firing.<\/p>\n

Guscott knows all there is to know about midfield play at the highest level and cannot, for the life of him, understand Ojomoh\u2019s England<\/a> omission from the Six Nations.<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember getting dropped by England and thinking: \u2018I can\u2019t change that. The decision\u2019s been made. I just have to carry on playing and trying to play well\u2019,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Max has done that. With little appreciation and no reward from England. I\u2019m at a loss as to why he wasn\u2019t given an opportunity in the Six Nations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at his body of work for Bath since being man of the match against Argentina in the autumn, it\u2019s very difficult to understand why he hasn\u2019t been given another opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

A performance too good to ignore from Ojomoh, built on a fast start, would delight Guscott. If not Leicester.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: How Eddie Jones changed the fortune of an England star and the advice Noah Caluori needs to heed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeremy Guscott, one of the greatest finishers in rugby history, believes the key to success for Bath against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[79322,309,348,46723,50,21002,5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-622762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-bath","tag-england","tag-home-page","tag-leicester-tigers","tag-news","tag-premiership","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}