Bath can repeat the flying start of 2003

Bath Rugby's loose-head prop David Barnes is backing his teammatesto turn the clock back four years this month to the start of the 2003/04 Guinness Premiership term.

While England were in Australia winning the World Cup, a new-lookBath side embarked on a run of ten straight league wins which set thefoundation for a trip to the Premiership final the following May.

Bath got off to a flier despite the absence of Danny Grewcock,Mike Tindall, Mike Catt and Iain Balshaw on World Cup duty.

This time around, Matt Stevens, Lee Mears, Steve Borthwick andOlly Barkley will be involved in England's World Cup defence.

On top of that, Samoan centre Eliota Fuimaono is away in Francewith his national side and top close-season signing Butch James iswith the Springboks.

But Barnes insists this season's squad must close ranks, focus onthe strength available to play in the Premiership and forget aboutthe absentees.

"It's vital that we don't spend any time worrying about who's nothere and how we're going to cope without them," said Barnes.

"Things have moved on a fair bit over the summer on the squadstrengthening front with seven new signings on board.

"Those signings and the recruitment of Simon Halliday at boardlevel have given the club more strength-in depth on the pitch andfresh impetus off it.

"It's vital we hit the ground running right from the first gameagainst Worcester at The Rec.

"We need to forget about who's not here to play, concentrate onwho is and not worry about how other Premiership teams are affectedby World Cup call-ups in the first seven or eight weeks of theseason.

"We got a great start in 2003/04, we never looked back and we gotstronger when the guys came back into the squad after the World Cupthat year."

Last season, Barnes came within two minutes of giving Bath theirfirst away win of a difficult Premiership season at Sale's EdgeleyPark in April.

He picked off a stray Sale pass and streaked over from 40 metresto set Bath up for what looked like a victory until Jason Robinson,playing his last game for the Stockport club, scored in injury time.

Bath finally broke their season-long Premiership duck on the roadat Newcastle on the last weekend of the regular season.

And that, Barnes confessed, was a huge relief.

"We didn't want to go a whole season without an away win in thePremiership because that would have been a talking point for years,no matter what else we achieved last season," he reflected.

"As it turned out, we went on to play in the European ChallengeCup final against Clermont Auvergne and we should have won that andwon a trophy.

"That's why the squad is determined to deliver for the supportersthis season after everything they have been through over the last fewseasons."