bath rugby
BATH APPOINT HATLEY AS HEAD COACH
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Bath have appointed Neal Hatley as their new Head Coach.
irector of Rugby Stuart Hooper has confirmed the appointment of Neal Hatley as Bath Rugby Head Coach. Hatley returned to Bath as Forwards and Defence Coach after helping guide England to the Rugby World Cup Final in Japan.
Neal Hatley arrived back at Bath after the 2019 Rugby World Cup
He re-joined Bath Rugby after three and half successful years in the international setup, bringing with him a wealth of experience at all levels of the professional game. Hooper said: “We’re thrilled to confirm Neal as Head Coach. The Director of Rugby and Head Coach setup has always been the route I want to follow. I believe it’s the right way to get the best out of our people. Bringing Neal back into our environment was about reconnecting, finding out how I can complement him, how he can complement me and how we can deliver the best programme at the Club.” Hatley said: “When I rejoined Bath, Stuart was very clear about what we are trying to do at the Club. Now as Head Coach at Bath, I’m responsible for field performance. With my focus on delivering great performances on the pitch, it allows Stuart to focus on how we want to play and perform, making sure we are doing what we discussed in training and optimising everything we do. “As Head Coach, I want to make sure I get the best out of our players and that’s a lot about building relationships, knowing they trust your leadership. I’ve set out very clearly 60 THEWESTWILTSMAGAZINE
how I expect our players to behave, how I expect them to train and how we expect to treat each other. “Not only is Bath an incredible city to live in but it’s a rugby city through and through. I feel incredibly proud to be Head Coach at this Club and believe me, we want to win silverware.” Hooper added: “You can talk about significant expertise in areas of the game but it’s only a small part of being Head Coach. Neal’s ability to connect with the players and develop those relationships along with his ability to deliver the key principles of our play is a huge skill.
“He takes players on the journey and helps them understand why we do what we do. His ability to connect with those guys, influence them, develop them outside of the training field is massive and an absolutely fundamental part of being a Head Coach. “In the same way I look at how we can build a world-class squad, exactly the same detail and thought goes into our rugby staff. I believe that appointing Hats in this role makes our coaching team even stronger as we head into the culmination of the season.” • bathrugby.com
REARRANGED 2019/20 FIXTURES The following Gallagher Premiership games have been rearranged and will all be played behind closed doors. All matches will be shown on BT Sport... 31 Aug 5 Sep 9 Sep 13 Sep 18 - 20 Sep 4 Oct
15:00 14:00 19:45 15:00 TBC 15:00
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