Reid: We want to build new legacy

COMBATIVE Bath back rower Miles Reid is hellbent on putting the halcyon days of the 1980s and 90s firmly in the past - if only to keep his old man quiet by winning major silverware this season.

Reid's dad Mark was a second/ third-string player at the club during their trophy-laden years, which saw 10 Cups and six League titles end up back at The Rec in a 12-year-period between 1984 and 1996.

Becoming the first English winners of the Heineken Cup in 1998 was another golden moment in the rich history of the West Country giants but by then the side's dominance was already starting to wane as the Leicester and Wasps dynasties took hold, followed later on by Saracens and Exeter.

In the 26 years since, Bath's only win was the 2008 European Challenge Cup, and the closest they have come to a league title was in 2015 when they reached the final with Sam Burgess in their ranks.

All in all, it adds up to a meagre return for the millions spent by owner Bruce Craig in an attempt to restore the club's fortunes.

However, this season is bubbling along nicely with the club sat in the top four and through to the last 16 of the Champions Cup, and the hope is that the trophy cabinet will be almost as full to overflowing as the swollen River Avon which runs behind the West Stand of The Rec.

"One of my main motivations to win here is probably to stop people speaking about those days; my dad harks on to me about those days, Robbo (contact coach, Andy Robinson) loves those days, so to create a new legacy is what we want to do as a group here," says Bath-born Reid.

"I've heard all these stories of the glory days, the golden days, so to emulate that would be very special.

"It is such a great city, such a great club, so us as players, we owe that to the people who work at Farleigh House and at The Rec, and of course the people at Bath, to bring some silverware back here.