It has been almost 30 years since Bath were last crowned champions of England
For the third time in the past decade Bath Rugby travel to Twickenham in the aim of crowning themselves Gallagher Premiership Rugby champions.
This Saturday afternoon Johann van Graan’s star-filled side will play Michael Cheika in front of a sold-out crowd at the home of English rugby.
From the opening round of the season all the way back in September Bath have been hell-bent on avenging their Premiership Final loss to Northampton Saints a year ago.
Already this season the side from Somerset have added silverware to their trophy cabinet, with impressive Premiership Rugby Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup victories.
After beating their bitter West Country rivals Bristol Bears 34-20 on Friday night at the Rec, the club will look to diminish their longstanding itch of becoming the champions of England again, 29 years on from their last title.
Even today there is a reminder of the past among Bath’s ranks with the sons of club legends Phil de Glanville and Steve Ojomoh turning out in Blue, Black and White on a weekly basis.
Ben Spencer holds the trophy as Bath celebrate their first European triumph since 2008 (Getty Images)
Both Tom de Glanville and Max Ojomoh, like the majority of their teammates, are unencumbered by Bath’s rich history.
Not born when Somerset was revered as English rugby’s hotbed, the duo will be looking to make a little history of their own alongside Finn Russell, Ben Spencer, Thomas du Toit and co.
But ahead of kick-off this weekend, here is a reminder the club’s last domestic title…
English rugby giants
Even three generations later it is hard not to remember the names of the players that turned Bath into a dominant domestic force.
Jon Callard, Adebayo Adebayo, Jeremy Guscott, Andy Robinson, Victor Ubogu, Mike Catt and Nigel Redman had been the spine of a team that had won the Courage League National Division One five times of the first eight years of the English league system under head coach Brian Ashton.
After a 29-year wait, can Bath keep their Gallagher Premiership dreams alive? 🏆 pic.twitter.com/XlZFSiOOiB
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You then add five Pilkington Cup titles to that tally leading into the 1995/96 season and you get a feel for exactly why this Bath side is so fondly remembered.
So far as everyone was concerned these early giants of league competition were set to stay.
But on the same day that Michael Jackson’s “You Are Not Alone” topped the UK charts, no one knew that the 1995/96 Courage League National Division One would see the team’s dominance begin to come to its end.
When did Bath last win the English Premiership?
Throughout the season the two teams were neck and neck with 30 points each going into the final round of action in late April.
In the East Midlands Leicester Tigers hosted Harlequins and Bath welcomed Sale to the Recreation Ground on what promised to be a scintillating day’s action at the end of the league season. Safe to say it delivered.
With Sale contending with Wasps for the final English spot in the inaugural Heineken Cup campaign there was little room for error by Bath, who were pushed hard by their visitors from start to finish.
Despite a 32-12 lead at half time thanks to tries from Andy Nicol, Catt, Jon Sleightholme, Audley Lumsden and Fraser Waters, along with the ever-reliable boot of Callard, the side were put under the pump for the entirety of the second half.
Bath v Gloucester, Victor Ubogu and Jeremy Guscott of Bath after the match. (Photo by Steve Bardens/Offside via Getty Images)
Two Callard penalties were all that the hosts could muster as tries from Neil Ashurst and Joe Baxendell, and Rob Liley’s unerring accuracy from the tee, brought Sale into the contest.
As anxiety grew in the ramshackle stands of the Rec news of goings on in Leicestershire began to filter through. Harlequins had won.
So even as Chris Yates’ score for Sale with time up was converted to register a 38-38 draw, a single point proved to be the difference and Bath were English champions for a sixth time in nine years.
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Doing the double
By the season’s end Leicester had been left hurt by Bath twice.
In two of the three seasons that Bath had not won National Division One it was Leicester Tigers that ultimately finished top of the pile.
The top two teams in England by some distance (with Wasps and Harlequins at their heels) had the opportunity to contend with one another at Twickenham Stadium in front of a then world record 75,000 crowd in the Pilkington Cup.
As Leicester smarted from their league failure a week earlier the side were subdued in the showpiece finale of the tournament and watched as Bath lifted another trophy at their expense.
Bath captain Andy Nicol, centre, and his team mates celebrate beating Brive 19 -18 at the Lescure Stadium in Bordeaux to lift the Heineken Cup, 31st January 1998. (Photo by Dave Rogers/Getty Images)
It was the kicking of Jon Callard, a penalty try and a Mike Catt drop goal that proved to be the difference between the two clubs as the West Country side registered a 16-15 win in West London.
Two years after that last league title Bath were crowned Heineken Cup champions for the first, and only, time.
It was just the second year that the continental competition had taken place, 36,500 people packed into the Stade Chaban-Delmas to watch the West Country side take on cup-holders, Brive.
From that point onwards the team had only ever flirted with silverware, with three runners-up finishes in the league, two more in domestic cup competition and their Challenge Cup win in 2007/08 was nothing more than flash in the pan.
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