Bath Rugby coach hands Fuimaono the chance to impress

Steve Meehan has backed the recalled Eliota Fuimaono to take his opportunity to impress at Northampton.

The Samoan produced an accomplished display at fly-half as Bath won at Sale Sharks in the EDF Energy Cup last month, but then had to return home for personal reasons and missed the defeat at Cardiff Blues.

Fuimaono returned off the bench as Bath beat Leicester 25-21 in the Guinness Premiership a week ago – and has been selected ahead of Shaun Berne at inside centre for the trip to Northampton.

And head coach Meehan is pleased to be able to give the 28-year-old another chance to shine.

"If you go back to the Sale game a few weeks ago, he was very effective – he really went to the line well and challenged them all the time," said Meehan.

"Unfortunately for him, he had to return home for a family matter for a week and missed the Cardiff game.

"But he came off the bench against Leicester last week and was very, very good.

"This is a good chance for him to start alongside Butch James – and against another former Auckland player in Carlos Spencer. He will enjoy that tussle."

The only other change to the side that beat Leicester sees Jack Cuthbert come in for the injured Joe Maddock (fractured eye socket) at full-back.

Bath had also hoped to include team captain Michael Lipman at openside flanker – but the England man has been struggling with a hamstring strain this week and his fitness could not be guaranteed when Meehan picked his team.

"As of Thursday he was not 100 per cent, so whether he would have been by Saturday is an unknown," said Meehan.

"Even if he had turned up on Friday and trained well then the disruption to the team was a concern to Michael.

"We could not have guessed how he would have felt on Saturday morning and we didn't want him to be risked and then be out of contention to face the All Blacks next weekend."

But even without their skipper, Bath showed the necessary grit and resolved to fight back from 21-20 down with five minutes to play to beat Leicester and remain top of the Premiership last weekend.

Meehan, however, would like to see his players create more chances when they come up against Northampton, who last week became the first side to lose against Bristol in the league this season.

"Against Leicester we only had four opportunities to score – and we took three of them," said Meehan.

"But we would like to have more opportunities this weekend, because four over the course of 80 minutes is not likely to win you many games."

Northampton director of rugby Jim Mallinder, whose side lie 14 points behind Bath, certainly expects a tough game from the league leaders.

"Bath have played some excellent rugby this season and are rightly top of the table," he said.

"Steve Meehan has developed an athletic and dynamic team that is comfortable keeping the ball alive and always looks to create opportunities.

"His players are also well conditioned, which was shown when they scored in the last minute against Leicester last weekend. It is understandable if they are approaching this weekend's game in confident mood."

Northampton: S Myler; C Ashton, C Mayor, J Downey, B Reihana (capt); C Spencer, B Foden; T Smith, J Gray, B Stewart, I Fernandez Lobbe, J Kruger, M Hopley, M Easter, R Wilson. Reps: P Shields, S Tonga'uiha, C Day, B Lewitt, L Dickson, N Mordt, P Diggin.

Bath: J Cuthbert; A Higgins, A Crockett (capt), E Fuimaono, M Banahan; B James, S Bemand; D Barnes, P Dixon, D Bell, J Harrison, D Grewcock, P Short, J Fa'amatuainu, D Browne. Reps: R Hawkins, A Jarvis, S Hooper, J Scaysbrook, M Baxter, S Berne, M Stephenson.