Bath's dismal season

Mike Ford took over from Gary Gold in 2013 after Gold parted ways with the Rec Ground outfit under unclear circumstances. 

While under Ford's tutelage, the club improved on their seventh position 2012/13 Premiership table finish to end in fifth position a year later, and subsequently granting them qualification to the European Champions Cup (formerly known as the Heineken Cup). Leinster narrowly edge Bath 18-15 in the quarter-finals of that year. The Somerset-based club's 2014/15 European's success was the best since the 2008/09 season.

Ford seemed set to be restoring Bath Rugby's reputation, not only in England but on the continent as well, as one of the powerhouses that they once were back in the late 90s and early 2000s.

This and a 30-16 defeat to Northampton Saints in the Challenge Cup final was, however, as close as Ford's men would get to any form of silverware in the Champions Cup. 

Towards the end of 2014, reports indicated that Ford lost the locker room and the respect of his players. Two players in particular were at the receiving of the 50-year-old's "unorthodox" decisions - Sam Burgess and Carl Fearns. The code-hopping Burgess signed a three-year deal at the beginning of 2014 for Bath after switching from league. Burgess left at the end of 2015 citing his hunger to get back into league as the reason for leaving. But it was current Lyon back-rower Fearns that hinted at the manner in which Ford managed his players for both of them opting to leave the Rec for greener pastures. Fearns, who was impressive whenever he got time to play, said in an interview with Rugby World, in the beginning of the year, that he wasn't being rewarded for his workrate.

"I wasn’t starting as many games as I would have liked. I was coming off the bench, making a big impact and wasn’t really getting rewarded. When I re-signed for Bath it was under Gary Gold and when he left (in December 2013) the club didn’t really seem the same to me. So I hadn’t been happy for probably a year."

When Burgess left, Fearns took to Twitter and tweeted eight crying emoticons.

"It wasn’t aimed at him, I really liked Burgess. It was more the situation at Bath."

Whatever transpired in the locker rooms or in the boardroom has certainly made it's way into Bath's performance and a ninth finish in the Premiership certainly added an already volatile situation resulting in Ford and the club parting ways. 

Premiership finishes over the last four seasons:

2012/13 - seventh

2013/14 - fifth

2014/15 - second

2015/16 - ninth