Premiership Rugby returns this weekend and the Army Rugby Union will be represented at the Recreation Ground.
LCpl Semesa Rokoduguni (SDG) has been chosen on the Bath bench for their season opener against newly-promoted Newcastle Falcons on Saturday afternoon.
Bath finished as one of the Premiership’s in-form teams, winning seven and drawing one of their last 10 matches in 2019/20 to finish fourth in the table. This saw them head to Exeter in the semi-finals, losing to the eventual Premiership and European double-winners.
LCpl Rokoduguni had 19 outings in the Premiership last term, more appearances than in either of the previous two seasons, and while he will be wanting to improve on the one try he scored there were plenty of other promising attacking statistics to build on after the short off-season, not least the 40 defenders beaten and 6.2m average carry.
Their opponents, Newcastle, will be a somewhat unknown quantity, the Falcons having not played competitively since March, although they have some rugby under their belts thanks to home-and-away friendlies against Ealing over the past fortnight.
Saturday’s game kicks off at 12:30pm with live coverage on BT Sport Extra 2.
Elsewhere there was no fairytale ending in Super League for Pte Ratu ‘Siva’ Naulago (Yorks), whose Hull FC team came up against the league winners Wigan on Thursday evening, the Warriors winning 29-2 to advance to the Grand Final.
After starring in League Pte Naulago is now switching back to Union, heading south to Bristol to join up with the Bears for their Premiership and European Champions Cup campaigns.
Words © Chris Wearmouth, Images © Alligin Photography, Andrew Fosker
