Bath secure Shark

The 28-year-old Number 10, has been the Sharks king-pin in recent years and is the favourite for the fly-half berth in the World Cup squad. Just this year, James helped the Sharks to reach the final of the Super 14, where they lost out by only a mere point to South African side the Bulls after a thrilling contest.

Talking about his move to Bath, James told the club website: "I am looking forward to the challenge of joining Bath Rugby. I have heard so many good things about the club from the other South Africans that play and have played there."

Renowned for his accurate goal-kicking, visionary distribution and ferocious defence, James is considered not only an energetic, but inspirational team player, and is set to be an invaluable asset to this season's squad. Head Coach, Steve Meehan believes "Butch's skill set, experience and physicality will no doubt provide the team with certainty and opportunity. We are sure he will contribute towards Bath being a more dangerous team in attack and more solid defensively."

He is no stranger to the international scene either and will be familiar to fans of English rugby, after he lined up as fly-half for the Springboks in both Tests against England on their recently completed tour of South Africa. Butch James will be joining the rest of the Bath squad at the end of the World Cup.

Bath Rugby begin their European Challenge Cup campaign in Pool 1 drawn with Albi, Auch and Overmach Parma. The fixtures for the European Challenge Cup will be announced in the coming weeks. To receive the fixtures first join the ercrugby.com mailing list at www.ercrugby.com/ezine.