JONATHAN Joseph says Bath have an early-season spring in their step and the centre is hoping to take that momentum into tomorrow’s showdown with Leicester.

The Rec men have got the new campaign off to a positive start, with a hard-fought victory at bogey side Sale Sharks before hammering London Welsh 53-26 last weekend.

Joseph is in no doubt over the size of the task facing his team when they take to the field against Richard Cockerill’s Tigers, who themselves have kicked off with back-to-back Aviva Premiership wins, but doesn’t see any reason why Bath can’t come out on top at the Rec tomorrow (3.15pm).

“Leicester are a great team and they’re always a difficult team to play against,” said the 23-year-old.

“They’re really strong in all areas and it’s always such a competitive game – it’s always massively exciting when you play Leicester.

“We’ve had a good start to the season and we’ve got to be confident of putting in a performance on Saturday.

“We’ve won two from two and started off really well, so hopefully we can keep that going. I think that everyone at Bath is looking forward to it and we’ve been training hard to be prepared for Saturday.”

Joseph was at the centre of last weekend’s emphatic victory over Welsh as he ran in two tries, but was still disappointed to see the hosts concede four tries at the Rec.

Joseph said: “We pride ourselves on our defensive work and we were pretty disappointed with letting them score four tries – that’s something that we need to try and not let happen in future.

“I was pretty happy to score two and I think I’ve started quite well in the first two games.

“The others did well to set me up on Saturday.”

  • BATH’S home clash with Newcastle is on Saturday, November 15 at (5pm), with Bath going to London Irish a week later (3pm).

The home clash with Harlequins takes place on Friday, November 28, at 7.45pm and will be broadcast live on BT Sport.

Meanwhile, the Combined Services will take on the Barbarians at the Rec on Tuesday, November 11, in a match to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War.

MORE SPORTS NEWS, PICTURES AND REACTION IN THIS FRIDAY’S WILTSHIRE TIMES. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @WTSport