Bath head coach Steve Meehan is expecting his side to step up from their fourth-place finish in last season's Premiership.

A hangover from the drugs scandal at the end of the 2008/9 campaign saw Bath near the foot of the table at Christmas before sneaking into the play-offs.

"Our aim will be to improve on last season's performances, there's no doubt about that," Meehan told BBC Bristol.

"Simply by getting off to a better start we'll do that."

Meehan continued: "We have to be a little more pragmatic this season, but we played some great rugby and the change to the interpretation of the laws will probably help us more than others.

"We're pretty positive and feel we're in a good spot."

These players signed before they knew of any of the changes and they signed for rugby reasons because they wanted to come to Bath and play out style of game Steve Meehan

It is an exciting time for last year's Premiership semi-finalists as they start the 2010/11 campaign with a new owner in Bruce Craig and new headquarters at Farleigh House.

Several high-profile players have also arrived at the 'Rec', including England internationals Lewis Moody and Sam Vesty, along with British and Irish Lion Simon Taylor.

"These players signed before they knew of any of the changes and they signed for rugby reasons because they wanted to come to Bath and play our style of game," said Meehan.

"We're delighted that they're here and all of them have brought something with them."

But arguably the most significant arrival is legendary coach Sir Ian McGeechan, who has the taken the title of performance director.

"It's an interesting one - it's someone else to sit down and discuss rugby matters with," added Meehan.

"He's also stepped in and taken away some peripheral issues away from me which I've benefitted from.

"And he is working with the academy and doing things there that we always felt were necessary but just didn't have time to do. It's a pretty broad brush but good fun."

While the likes of Butch James, Olly Barkley, Lewis Moody and Luke Watson may well grab the headlines, Meehan is excited by the potential of some less-heralded players.

"[Hooker]Ross Batty's arrived [from Rotherham] and there was not a great deal of fanfare there," said the 43-year-old Queenslander.

"He's got a good work ethic, and although he's got some areas that need work, he'll push Pieter Dixon and Lee Mears.

"Late last season we saw Nathan Catt come through and we're expecting that to continue on an upward trend.

"Josh Ovens, Guy Mercer and Chris Cook at scrum half have all been very impressive in training and I'm expecting them to get a reasonable amount of first-team action this year."

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