Australian Steve Meehan arrived in English rugby union at Bath in the summer of 2006, initially as backs coach and then acting head coach following the departures of Brian Ashton, Mike Foley and Richard Graham
Having lost the opening match of the campaign at Gloucester, Bath bounced back to claim victory in Meehan's home debut at the Rec against old foes Leicester, coming from behind with 20 minutes to go to win 43-25
After winning seven of his 16 games as acting head coach, Meehan was promoted to head coach prior to Christmas and the foggy home game against Sale when Chris Malone guided Bath to a narrow victory
A stop-start domestic campaign culminated in finishing eighth in the table, while in Europe Bath saw off the likes of Harlequins, Bristol and Saracens in the European Challenge Cup but lost the final 22-16 to Clermont Auvergne
Meehan promised his side would "come out better" in 2007/08 and they did, winning six of their opening seven games and their first 10 matches of the campaign at the Rec which gave the home crowd something to cheer
And once the 2007 World Cup was over Bath's efforts were further boosted by the return of Olly Barkley and the arrival of South African World Cup winner Butch James to orchestrate their midfield and fire them to the play-offs
Bath finished third in the Premiership and reached the play-offs for the first time in four seasons but they came unstuck against Wasps for the third time that term and conceded three tries and lost 21-10 at Adams Park
But there was almost immediate salvation a week later when they won a first piece of silverware in a decade by beating Worcester 24-16 in the European Challenge Cup final, captain Steve Borthwick's last match for the club
Statisically speaking the 2007/08 campaign was Meehan's best as Bath won 76% of their games and hopes were high of a continuing improvement but on-field success was over-shadowed by the Matt Stevens drugs scandal
On the pitch Bath progressed to the knockout stages of both the Heineken Cup and the Premiership but lost to Leicester in both in the space of a month, reaching the last eight of the former and the play-offs of the latter
And off the pitch there was yet more trouble with players embroiled in a drugs probe which saw Justin Harrison leave by mutual consent and co-captains Michael Lipman, Alex Crockett and wing Andrew Higgins resign
The fall out was felt deep into the following season as Bath won just two of their opening 14 matches in all competitions and watching opponents celebrate became a regular occurrence for Meehan and his men
But against the odds Bath bounced back and went on a stunning run that left opponents floored and they reached the Premiership play-offs for a third successive season after winning 10 of their final 12 league games
But once there an uncompromising Leicester side yet again blocked their path to glory and ran out 15-6 winners at Welford Road, putting an end to Meehan's worst season in terms of statistics with a 42% win ratio
The summer saw the dawn of a new era at Bath with Bruce Craig ploughing his millions into the club, buying new training facilities and bringing in Sir Ian McGeechan to help Meehan bring more success to the Rec
But results fell away on the pitch after that spring surge and struggling Bath were anaemic in the autumn and suffered winter woes in the Heineken Cup going out at the pool stages after back-to-back defeats to Ulster
And despite an improvement in results since the turn of the year, including five victories on the spin, the focus is now on Sir Ian McGeechan as Meehan heads for the exit after 88 wins from his 161 games at the helm
What are these?
E-mail this to a friend 
Bookmark with:
What are these?