By Glen Leat
May 29 2003

After a disappointing end of the season for Danny Grewcock when his team lost a Cup Final, he was sent off in the match and found himself out of the reckoning for an England spot on the summer tour he now finds himself out of favour with the Bath fans. Danny Grewcock came to Bath a couple of years ago with a great deal of expectation lying on his shoulders and it is unfortunate that the arrival of this quality international lock forward should co-incide with the worst spell of form in modern Bath Rugby history. In my view Grewcock has just been unlucky to have grabbed the reins at a time when everything has gone wrong, I'm not too sure anyone else could have done much more to halt the slide in form but much more could have been done in terms of leadership and example. This season Grewcock has picked up a couple of red cards and 9 yellows - yes 9 (or at least that is what it says on the Zurich Premiership website); these figures alone say to me, we need a new captain next season.

The big question is who should replace Grewcock next season. Early signs
on the messageboard indicate that it should be either Jonathan Humphreys
or Matt Perry with the likes of Mike Tindall and Dan Lyle coming up on
the rails. My view is that we need a skipper to meet the needs of next
season and not worry too much about the longer term - managing a host of
new players and getting some pride and passion back in to our games throughout
the season and not just when we are playing to avoid relegation.

Whilst Matt Perry is a great club man and his family have blue, black and
white running through their veins I don't think next season is the right
time. Mike Tindall is too volatile and needs to concentrate on his own
game so that leaves either Humphreys or Lyle - both good leaders of men.

In my opinion either would be good but I am going to plump for the ex-Welsh
skipper Humphreys for several reasons:

· I think he should have been made skipper when he arrived;
· he has the experience and pedigree to manage our players on the pitch;
· he will show a bit of passion for the Bath shirt (and not get caught -
only 3 yellows in 21 league matches);
· he may not last the whole match but he'll drive the players from the side
of the pitch.

So what do you think? I've posted up a new poll naming the above candidates
for you to vote on; you never know Mr Foley may take notice of what you
say.