THE LATEST NEWS AND UPDATES ACROSS BATH STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX SIGN UP Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Not even 18 months ago, Guy Mercer was the club captain of Bath Rugby. He has now left the team he grew up loving with two years left to run on a three-year contract.

How did that happen? That's not supposed to happen.

In the summer of 2016, Bath were in disarray. They didn't have enough players and they didn't have enough coaches.

They'd finished ninth in the Premiership, Mike Ford had been sacked at the end of that sorry campaign and collective morale was not good.

A rebuilding job needed doing and the club had to wait almost a whole summer for their new director of rugby, Todd Blackadder, and new head coach, Tabai Matson, to finish the Super Rugby campaign with Crusaders and arrive.

The promise of a "culture change" went a long way in convincing the powers that be at Bath that Blackadder and Matson were the best men for that task.

In the mean-time, the senior players pulled together at Farleigh House. With the help of then academy coach Baz Maddocks and newly-retired skipper Stuart Hooper, first-team coaches Toby Booth and Darren Edwards held the fort.

With Hooper no longer on the field, when Blackadder arrived he needed a captain. Mercer was the popular choice amongst the senior players.

He was a passionate player who had come through the academy and grew up in the city; full of energy and pride for the cause.

(Image: Tom Shaw/Getty Images for Aviva)

Arriving only a couple of weeks before the season started, Blackadder was happy with the choice and Mercer was bestowed the honour.

I remember sitting with a very excited Mercer at the Premiership launch at Twickenham that summer. He didn't stop beaming all day. It was the proudest moment of his career, not to mention his family's.

"It's been pretty special," the former King Edward's pupil told me. "I rang my mum while she was in a shop to tell her and she started crying. It's a massive moment for me and I'm so pleased to be asked."

From a player point of view, Mercer was to lead the "culture change".

"I think that's something we need to focus intently on, but the amount of positive change and work the boys have done already is pretty remarkable," he said that day.

(Image: Tom Shaw/Getty Images for Aviva)

Was he the right choice?

In spite of the support from the players and coaches there was one nagging doubt. Would Mercer actually play?

Francois Louw, the Springbok scavenger was, as he is now, the first-choice number seven when fit and available.

However, by the start of the season, while Louw was away playing in the Rugby Championship, David Denton got the nod.

When he tore his hamstring against Northampton Saints David Sisi had the honour. The club captain was forced to wait in the wings.

Then Tom Ellis, a converted lock, emerged as a back-row force and he got picked ahead of Mercer too. Clubs define the role of a club captain differently. For some, they have to be on the field most weekends.

For Bath, that wasn't a prerequisite and, on the field, Blackadder often went with co-captains - George Ford or Rhys Priestland in the backs and Louw and Charlie Ewels in the pack.

It's a system that was abandoned last season and when current club captain Matt Garvey isn't available, the likes of Ewels or Louw tend to take sole charge.

(Image: David Rogers/Getty Images)

The new contract...

Mercer's contract was expiring at the end of the 2016/17 season. That Spring he signed a new, three-year deal.

Not only was he down the pecking order for the seven jersey but Sam Underhill - a future England international at openside - had been signed from Ospreys on a three-year deal.

Game-time was always going to be at a premium, especially with the likes of Josh Bayliss and Zach Mercer breaking through.

For the sake of stability if not anything else, a homegrown club captain should be retained, but three years was always going to be on the long side in terms of value for money, playing time and keeping the player happy.

Fast forward to this Summer and Bath's approach to long-term recruitment and retention has changed. It is unlikely that kind of deal would have been offered to someone who wasn't first choice.

I doubt Mercer would have wanted to end up languishing with the tackle pads either. Bath United games interspersed with loan spells is not normally how a professional rugby player in his late 20s would want to be spending his career.

In an ideal world, one imagines Mercer would have loved to have come back for pre-season and truly competed with Louw, Underhill et al for a place. Unfortunately for him, in the coaches eyes, when everyone was fit, that was not going to happen.

A new club, at home or abroad, and a fresh start away could rejuvenate the tenacious flanker. He deserves a break.

The best of luck to him.

For all the latest Bath Rugby news, follow us on Facebook or Twitter, or join our WhatsApp group.