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Cup heroics and student drinking – the double life of Bath's Arthur Green
By Jon Newcombe
Ever the model young professional, Arthur Green sat down dutifully for his first proper media session on Tuesday fresh from a Man of the Match performance in Bath’s tremendous comeback win against Harlequins in the Premiership Rugby Cup quarter-finals.
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It was perhaps not how he envisaged spending his 21st birthday, but with nothing more riotous than a family meal later that evening planned, and when all he was hoping for was a new jumper as a present, he had no qualms chewing the fat with blokes of a similar age to his dad Will, the former England prop.
Green junior, a barnstorming back-rower, was born a couple of months before his old man propped up the Wasps scrum in the epic 2004 Heineken Cup final win against Toulouse at Twickenham. If Will told you he marked that equally special occasion by wearing a new jumper, he’d have been pulling the wool over your eyes as well as his.
Back then, the rugby landscape was very different. Whilst professionalism was starting to take effect, post-match beers by the bucketful were still a thing. But at present, the only sessions Green is concerned with are those in the gym, or involve the people that he’s been busy interviewing for a 10,000 word dissertation on student drinking habits as part of his Durham University Sociology degree. With a Cup semi-final against Newcastle on Friday, Bath’s coaches will be pleased to know that the research was all theory-based and not practical.
52′ | Powering over!
Arthur Green muscles his way over the line with the pick and go. Donoghue adds the extras.
🛁26-28🃏 pic.twitter.com/JTtdbfKEaO
— Bath Rugby (@BathRugby) February 28, 2025
“A few people who’ve done Sociology before have done that, so I am just following in their footsteps. I interviewed five people who drink and five people who don’t. I’ve got to hand in my dissertation in about 10 days. I am doing a bit of work after training and then a couple more essays. I’d like to come out with a 2:1 but I’d settle for a 2:2 as well,” the Sherborne-educated Green said.
Some might be dismissive that his degree is only ‘an ‘ology’ (older RugbyPass readers will get the reference to a BT ad from the 1980s) but as Green points out, balancing studying with playing full-time comes with challenges of their own.
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“It is pretty stressful, but it has been worth doing,” he said.
“Durham have been very accommodating with me not being there during these Prem Cup campaigns.
“I have had to keep a strong link with my professors to make sure they don’t get angry with me.
“But it’s been quite good sometimes to be able to switch off from rugby and put my brain power somewhere else. Being a bit more rounded will probably benefit me on the rugby pitch.”
Green’s housemate in Durham and a few university pals will make the short trip up to Newcastle from Durham to watch Green and Bath attempt to make it through to the Premiership Rugby Cup final.
Bath looked for all the world like they were going out in the quarter-finals when they trailed Harlequins 21-0 after 15 minutes, before they unleashed their ‘bomb squad’ at half-time and turned the match around to win, 39-28.
🗣️ “Excuse me sir!”
Arthur Green was good enough to apologise to Anthony Woodthorpe as he went past him on Friday night 🤝#PremRugbyCup pic.twitter.com/Mbe5rFFiwu
ADVERTISEMENT— Premiership Rugby (@premrugby) March 3, 2025
Green was outstanding in the 52 minutes he was on the pitch, scoring a try and making some big carries, including the biggest hand-off on a referee in a Bath match since Neil Back famously pushed Steve Lander over in the 1996 Pilkington Cup Final. Anthony Woodthorpe was sent skittling when he got in Green’s way and felt the full force of the back-rower.
“I did say sorry to him as I was running by. He was in a pretty inconvenient place at that moment and I was worried that he would bring it back,” said Green.
“I was very fortunate to get my hands on the ball as much as I did and, luckily, I had that line break.”
Taking out an official was a first for him in his short professional life, and Green says Quins’ blitzkrieg start was something else that he’d never experienced before.
“The intensity of Harlequins’ start was something I had never experienced before, the first 20 minutes of that game. Whilst I was playing, I was shocked in terms of this is the next step up, and then also what I learnt, when we were under the sticks for the third time in the space of 21 minutes, was the composure of the senior lads. They didn’t lose their heads.
“The likes of Ross Molony were telling everyone to stay calm and focus on the next job. That’s something I did pick up on: to perform at that level you can’t afford to lose your head, otherwise that could then turn into 28-0 and so on.”
A product of the Bath academy, Green admits he has still got plenty of learning in him, even if his degree course is just a matter of weeks away from running its course. On the playing side, he has identified his defence as a big work-on.
“I got caught out a few times. Their second try was kind of down to my decision making, my defensive reads. So that’s a big thing, and the tackle itself, I have been working with the academy coaches here, Mark Lills (Lilley) and Luke Charteris, trying to get that better technically and also tactically, knowing when to go around the corner or stay. So those are the areas I am really trying to push on in.”
Friday night’s clash with Newcastle pits together two teams looking to end long waits for silverware. Newcastle haven’t won anything since they brought the Powergen Cup back to the north east in 2004, while 17 years have passed since Bath added the European Challenge Cup, to the 10 Cups, six league titles and the Heineken Cup that they won between 1984 and 1998. That is where the similarity ends.
While Newcastle are running a threadbare squad on half the salary cap, Bath have an embarrassment of riches, as highlighted by their bench against Harlequins, which included England internationals Tom Dunn and Beno Obano and Springbok World Cup winner Thomas du Toit in the front row alone.
Falcons boss Steve Diamond has trotted out his favourite ‘Galacticos’ line in the build-up to the semi-final, and Green knows his unfancied team will be massively up for the fight.
“Andy (Robinson, Bath’s Cup coach) says every time you pull on a Bath jersey it comes with an expectation, to be physical and up front. So I feel like Newcastle will try and disrupt us in the small areas as well, with how we exit. Going up there is a big challenge, but I feel we’ll be ready to go, mentally we will be there on Friday night.”
If Bath do make it past the Falcons, they will face Exeter or Ealing Trailfinders in the final. To win things, like his dad, is one of Green’s key drivers. “That’s the dream.”
