Bath will head into a Guinness Premiership match without Butch James for the first time this season at Sale on Friday evening, writes Steve Cotton.

The 30-year-old has started all 17 league games for his club this term – as well as all six of their Heineken Cup matches – but will be rested for the trip to Edgeley Park.

Head coach Steve Meehan has taken the decision to rest his fly-half as Bath prepare for a hectic eight-day period in which they will play three Premiership matches.

The period of fixture congestion has fortunately coincided with Ryan Davis' return to fitness after 17 months out of first-team action – and the 23-year-old will start against Sale.

Meehan said: "Ryan Davis will be back and this will be the first Premiership or Heineken Cup match Butch hasn't started for us this season.

"His workload has been absolutely enormous and it would be difficult to keep asking somebody to keep starting every match, knowing you've got three in eight days and knowing what he has come off. If you put another game into him, do you run the risk of losing him for the rest of the season?

"I know those things can happen at any time, but you are more susceptible when you're tired and I think this is the right time."

James' workload is all the more impressive given he played a full summer of Test rugby for South Africa before the Premiership kicked off six months ago.

"I can't remember the last time he put in a full week of training, so what he has been doing for us on the field has been incredible," said Meehan. "These are things that no one knows about – they don't know what a guy's week is like in the attempt to get him on the field at the weekend.

"Butch has done outstandingly well for us – it's been an incredible season for him – but to keep putting the same team out, you run certain risks."

After facing Sale on Friday, Bath then host Wasps on Wednesday before taking on Harlequins three days later.

And Meehan, whose side then take on Leicester in the Heineken Cup quarter-final on April 11, admits his resources will be stretched to the limit between now and the middle of next month.

"It is tough, there's no doubt. It's very, very difficult," he said. "And to finish the three-game period with Harlequins, which could be the most important of all of them, makes it a really difficult task.

"What people need to be aware of is that it's not just three matches in eight days, it's what we've come off as well.

"And the last two games – against Saracens and Newcastle – have been really physical encounters.

"We've got a lot of walking wounded around the place, but we're lucky that Shontayne Hape, Tom Cheeseman and guys like that are fresh and ready to go. There are some decisions to be made, but the guys have prepared well and I have a lot of faith in them, so let's get them out there."

Meehan must choose which two of the three matches in which to play hooker Lee Mears, who is back from England duty but governed by the Elite Player Squad agreement set out last summer.

And he is expected to rest players such as Joe Maddock, Alex Crockett and David Flatman for Friday's match at sixth-placed Sale.

Sale have confirmed Jason White, Mathew Tait, Mark Cueto, Lionel Faure, Andrew Sheridan and Richard Wigglesworth will all return to their matchday squad.