By Glen Leat
August 16 2009

After two weeks in sunny Mallorca with (self imposed) limited access to television, newspapers and the internet it's very easy to forget all about the rugby related "goings on" at home. So here I am on the last Sunday before returning back to work trawling through the various stories, mainly focused on Bath and Quins.

Whether it's just the continuation of my sunny holiday mood or just a couple of weeks detached from the stories, I'm determined not to be depressed by how some individuals from these two mighty clubs have tried to drag the game of rugby, their clubs, employers, colleagues and supporters through the worst sort of mud imaginable, and I've decided to draw a line under happenings from the past and focus on the future.

It's my intention to never again utter the names of Lipman, Crockett, Harrison and what's his name who used to play on the wing for us (oh yes, Higgins) but instead to talk constantly about the players who will take forward the great name of Bath Rugby. 

However, before I move on: the vast majority of us will never know all of the details that led to the summer chaos at Bath Rugby, and personally I'm content with that. I'm very grateful to those people who were prepared to stand up and say "Enough!" and press the stop button on the club's escalator to ruin. Whether they and others should have sorted the unacceptable player culture earlier will be for them to know but not (in my opinion) for us to judge. Before any of us make judgments of our own it's one of those "walk a mile in my shoes" type of situations.

I'm always interested when someone comments about the need for "proper standards" because you only have to read the ERE Messageboard for a few days to see we all operate to different standards. If the club adopts one stance there will be a faction who deem them to be draconian whereas others will consider them too liberal. The players are professionals and no doubt want to be treated as professionals. Consequently the management may have chosen to manage with a light touch, assuming the players could be trusted to behave appropriately and within the law. That some couldn't be trusted casts a shadow over everyone and the players who were innocent bystanders to this whole situation should be angrier than any of us connected to our club.

What's really interesting to me is that despite this sorry affair I'm actually more excited about the coming season than for many years. Whilst the new signings have whetted my appetite for watching a new Bath team in action what I'm really looking forward to is seeing Shontayne Hape start the season as our key centre. I've said it before and I make no apologies for saying it again, this man is the new Jerry Guscott and, having now learnt the game and playing alongside the likes of Claassens, Berkley, James (when fit) etc, he will come in to his own this season. Shontayne will destroy opposition defences with his quick feet and quick brain and the likes of Joe Maddock will feel like it's Christmas morning every time he runs on to the park with Hape.

Hape runs like Guscott, tackles like Guscott, jinks like Guscott and thinks like Guscott. Given that most rugby pundits consider "our Jerry" to be the best England centre of modern times I can't give a higher compliment to Shontayne than that! I'd love to know what Jerry thinks of Shontayne and maybe in one of his regular columns he'll tell us.