Arundell on long route to Bath’s big day and hometown glory

Henry Arundell’s favourite childhood memory of Bath is of another semi-final.

Back in 2015, as a 12-year-old, he and his season ticket-holding family were at the Recreation Ground cheering on a demolition of Leicester in the Premiership play-offs.

“That was an awesome day – I remember that team so well,” Arundell told BBC Sport.

“There was George Ford at 10, which is a bit of a weird one now playing with him for England.

“But also Kyle Eastmond, Jonathan Joseph, Anthony Watson – another who I have played with at England, again weird.

“Tom Dunn and Charlie Ewels were part of that squad and are still here.

“I was just a child who loved rugby and dreamed of one day being in this scenario, so, yeah, it’s pretty cool.”

On Sunday, Arundell, now 23, and his modern-day Bath team have another semi-final to negotiate. It will be considerably tougher than that rout of Leicester.

Bordeaux-Begles, the star-studded, reigning champions, have home advantage at a sold-out 42,000-capacity Stade Atlantique in a scrap to make 23 May’s Champions Cup final.

The match will be Bath’s first Champions Cup semi-final in 20 years. Arundell too has taken a longer-than-expected route to this point.

As a rugby-mad schoolboy at Beechen Cliff in Bath, the club were the obvious career choice.

Arundell’s team-mates Miles Reid (four years above), Tom de Glanville (three years above), Ethan Staddon (a year above) and Vilikesa ‘Billy’ Sela (two years below) were all tied to Bath’s academy from the state school’s rugby programme.

But, aged 14, Henry’s talents, and his father’s career, took him elsewhere. His father Ralph got a job with Harrow School in north-west London. Henry got a scholarship.

In London Irish’s catchment area, he made his Exiles debut in November 2021, shortly after his 19th birthday. Several scorching scores followed, most notably a jaw-dropping 98m virtuoso run against Toulon, before he was named in England’s squad to tour Australia.

However, London Irish went into administration in June 2023 and Arundell opted for a move to French club Racing 92.

It didn’t turn out as he had hoped.

Injury and iffy performances checked his progress. Former England coach Stuart Lancaster, who had brought Arundell to the club, was sacked in February 2025 amid some miserable results.

“There were moments where your form is not great or you have injuries – and that can have an effect,” he says.

“You find the most growth in adversity and there were definitely things I gained – a lot of skill stuff and understanding from working with [All Black legend] Joe Rokocoko as a back-three coach and attack stuff from [former France fly-half] Freddie Michalak.

“You learn a lot from the players around you, the likes of Siya Kolisi, Gael Fickou, Josua Tuisova. You’re playing with huge names.

“When Owen [Farrell] came for my second year that was someone English that I could chat to and really learn from.

“At the end of the day though, I was a 20-year-old kid out in France living on my own and sometimes you do need family around you.

“I’m seeing my family every week now, rather than every few months. Having that support system is very special and I probably didn’t appreciate that enough when I was a bit younger.”

Arundell ended his stay at Racing a year early, agreeing a deal return home to Bath – “there was only one club I ever wanted to come back to” – and tuning in to watch from Paris as they won a treble of Premiership, Premiership Rugby Cup and European Challenge Cup last season.

Glory beckons again this term.

Bath are firmly on track for the play-offs in their defence of their English title.

The prospect of beating Leinster in the Champions Cup final in Bilbao is arguably an easier assignment than downing Bordeaux-Begles in the last four.

Arundell watched on enviously as the team took a bus-top parade around Bath last summer, showing off silverware in his home town.

He hopes to be on board this time around. And for a more stringent dress code.

“As much as I want to win I don’t know if I want to see to see Barbs [number eight Alfie Barbeary] in his budgie smugglers again!” he joked.

“But, by all means, I guess if we are seeing that, then it’s been a good season.”

There is some way to go before any celebratory smuggling, however.

The last time Arundell visited Bordeaux-Begles, his team, in his own words, were “battered”.

Louis Bielle-Biarrey and Damian Penaud – the French side’s warp-speed twin threat – both scored hat-tricks in a 52-34 win over Racing in September 2024.

“They’re a very good team – they wouldn’t have won Europe or competed in Top 14 finals if they weren’t,” said Arundell.

“What I learned was mainly that you don’t really want to start falling in the trap of trying to play their game.

“They have this incredible, organised-chaos style that they play every day, week in, week out.

“But we’re really good at what we do too. So I think the main plan for us is just play our game, back our game and we’ll see what happens.”

That isn’t any Gallic laissez-faire left over from his Racing stint though. Arundell has experienced enough already in his short career to recognise a good thing. And to know not to let such days and chances slip by.

“It’s rare to find yourself at a club where everyone loves being here,” he said.

“It’s an amazing culture and environment with amazing coaches and, when you do have that, you have to really embrace it, because you never know when it can suddenly turn bad.”

Bath will be aiming to inflict, rather than suffer, that change in fortunes on Sunday.