GUY Mercer is hoping that he and his Bath teammates will be able to offer their crestfallen England colleagues some home comforts when they report back from international duty.

The knives are currently out for the head coach Stuart Lancaster and his England charges – which include Bath’s George Ford, Jonathan Joseph, Sam Burgess, Anthony Watson, Rob Webber and David Wilson – following the crushing disappointment of the host nation’s exit from the Rugby World Cup.

Ford and Watson are set to start Saturday’s Pool A dead rubber against Uruguay at the City of Manchester Stadium, with Joseph and Webber named as replacements whilst Burgess and Wilson have been left out of Lancaster’s 23-man squad altogether.

Back in the south west, Mercer reckons that the only silver lining to England’s sobering World Cup departure is that Bath will be reunited with some of their biggest names earlier than expected.

“We have the odd bit of contact with them by text but not too much. We’re all really disappointed for them because we wanted them to do well,” said Mercer.

“It’s frustrating because a lot of the things said about them; they’re stuff that we don’t really agree with.

“The only bit of positive news to come from it is that we get them back a little bit earlier than we thought they would and I think they’ll be looking forward to coming back and getting back to what they’re used to.

“We want to make sure they come back into a team that’s doing well and a good environment.”

On Saturday, Bath host Exeter Chiefs in the final match of the West Country Challenge Cup (kick-off 5.45pm) – seven days before the same fixture takes place in their Aviva Premiership curtain-raiser.

Bath will hold a public exhibition of their plans for a temporary capacity expansion of the Rec in time for the 2016-17 season.

The plans will be shown at a public exhibition at the Guildhall next Friday (October 16) and the Rec on Saturday, October 17.

While the permanent future of the Rec continues to be debated - delaying the club’s plans for the redevelopment of the Rec - Bath will be applying for a four-year temporary consent to continue with the existing configurations of the North and South Stands as well as the Seasonal East Stand.

They also want to improve the West Stand, which would bring the overall capacity of the Rec to around 14,500.