STARTING Bath’s Gallagher Premiership campaign with an away trip to neighbouring Bristol tonight is the perfect way to open the competitive season, according to prop Nathan Catt.

Injuries to his back and arm last season kept Catt out of action for large parts of Bath’s turbulent Premiership campaign, which ended in Todd Blackadder’s men finishing outside the four play-off spots.

Having made a full recovery, the 30-year-old is now determined to stake his claim for a regular first-team spot as Bath eye their first silverware in more than a decade.

“Bristol away is a good way to start, it’s their first game back in the Premiership,” said Catt.

“They’ve recruited really well – new players and a new head coach. It will be interesting to see what they come up with.

“It’s almost a sell-out already, so it’s a great way for us to start, and we follow it up with Gloucester the week after so the boys are all excited.

“Bristol will be wanting to show everyone what they can do. But from our point of view, we want to go there and take the game away from them.

“It’s a big game for us, and an exciting one too. We’re looking forward to getting going.”

Like Bath, Bristol have recruited heavily during the summer as head coach Pat Lam looks to build on the club’s promotion from the Championship last term.

It has made analysing how Bristol will approach the game trickier than usual, but Catt insists Bath must focus on their own game if they are to make a winning start at Ashton Gate.

He said: “We’ve managed to have a look at their (Bristol) pre-season games, so we have a rough idea of what they’re going to bring to the table.

“All we can do, though, is concentrate on ourselves, so we’ve been trying to get our set-pieces right.

“We’ve been playing a lot of in-house games to improve the team’s skills.

“I want to get up and running by playing as much as I can for Bath.

“I didn’t have the best season last year, but I’m looking forward to getting started.

“Our pre-season games went well, Edinburgh was steady but unspectacular. Pieces have started to fall into place since then.

“The new boys have settled in well and added to the team, it’s an exciting time.”