BATH centre Jamie Roberts has labelled ‘The Clash’ as his team’s biggest game of the season, with Todd Blackadder’s side still hunting a place in the European Champions Cup for next season.

Bath will take on West Country rivals Bristol Bears at Twickenham on Saturday, with both sides hunting a top-six finish while concurrently attempting to avoid finishing bottom of the table and a potential relegation to the Championship.

Ten points separate Bath from Harlequins in fourth, while The Rec side are the same number away from bottom side Newcastle Falcons.

Some would choose to play down the importance of such a fixture, however, former British & Irish Lion and Wales international Roberts believes his team should see this game as if it were a Test match.

He said: “It’s probably the biggest game of our season, if you look at the context of where we are in the league, the occasion, who it’s against, the size of the crowd, where it is.

“It’s got all the ingredients to be huge match for us – it’s more or less a Test match, or as close as you can get to a Test without it being one.

“Twickenham is a great stadium – it’s not the best in the world, we all know what the best one is – but we love playing at The Rec.

“Home advantage is obviously important, but I’d like to think the majority of fans on Saturday will be in Blue, Black and White anyway.”

Roberts, who has made over 200 club career appearances and won 90 caps for Wales, will hope to make his 50th Premiership appearance in south west London on Saturday.

And he admits it will be his job to guide some of the English players – whose dream it is to play at Twickenham – through an immensely competitive 80 minutes.

Insisting their preparation has stepped up in the preceding days, Roberts said: “Experience is important, but it’s important you make it count in the right ways.

“Some of the lads in our team won’t have played in an occasion this big before, so it’s a case of guiding them through and keeping calm in the heat of the pressure and the occasion.

“There will only be a certain amount of big moments throughout the game and we need to make them count.

“I’ve made the message to the lads this week that this is more or less a Test match for us. We have to prepare like it is one.

“Training goes up a notch, the accuracy in our game goes up a notch and the intensity in training has certainly gone up a notch this week.

“We need to make sure we continue to prepare well for this huge game.”