Bath stalwart hooker hangs up his boots

After 11 years at The Rec, Bath hooker Ross Batty will retire on the advice of medical experts after a serious neck injury. 

“I picked up the injury at the end of November and it just never came back,” Batty said. 

“I had an operation on December 15, I was lucky to get in for the surgery in three weeks which is quite quick considering the situation with Covid which made things a nightmare to get things tied down. 

“That gave me the best possible chance to improve because I lost my hand totally, it died. 

“I lost all function on the outside of my hand and raising my hand and other stuff. 

“Still, now my lingering problems are my neck, which is pretty sore and stirred up all the time; I have got no feeling down the outside of my right hand and into my pinky and half my ring finger in my right hand. 

“It is really slow steps [with the recovery] and it might not come back at all. 

“It is bad but I can still use my index finger and my thumb so you can get by with that, using keys or making a cup of tea, stuff like that. 

“But when it comes to things like trying to catch or pass a rugby ball, throw in a line out, it is not ideal.” 

Batty leaves as a great servant to Bath, having racked up 180 caps for the club and it seems that the part of the game he will miss most is the scrum. 

“I genuinely love scrummaging. 

“It is the bit I really miss because it is a real physical confrontation and it is you against your opposite number going head to head and it is just a real confrontational situation.” 

In his parting words it is clear that Bath will always have a special place in Batty’s heart – a club he has loved and grown in as a player and as a person. 

“I am very lucky to have been privileged to put my hand up enough to stay here for 11 seasons. You have to perform to get there but I am really grateful to the people in charge and the club for putting their faith in me and letting me do my thing. 

“I have never wanted to go anywhere else but at the end of the day it is a performance business. 

“To be able to play that long for the club I genuinely love, I am massively proud of and feel very privileged. 

“It sticks in the back of my throat that we have been massively close to winning silverware a couple of times but not done it. I am massively gutted about that. 

“But I have loved every minute of my career. It would have been great to get something but that shows just how tight the margins are at the top. 

“We have never just got over the line.” 

Where to now for Batty? 

“I have always found rugby so intense, I loved to train but you have to always be on it through the week to be good at the weekend,” he said. 

“I always needed time away from the game so I started doing up a property in Trowbridge where I bought, then I did another one in Bath. 

“It is something to totally take my mind off rugby. 

“Through links at the club I got put in touch with Stonewood Builders, a really good local builders who have gone quite big now and they have got a really good reputation. 

“They have given me a fantastic opportunity to go and work there and work my way through the system. They have mapped out a way I can progress in the company over a five-year plan. 

“I can’t wait to get my teeth into it. Having a bit of clarity over my future is great. 

 
“I am totally at peace with it now I have got all the advice from the medical professionals about how dangerous it would be to try and go again and the detriment it could have on my health.”