By normal standards Bath's home, the Recreation Ground, should have been a place of back-slapping today. Instead it felt a little empty, most of the backs, particularly the broader ones, were missing – gone to be with Martin Johnson and England at their base in Surrey.
England have dug deep into Bath's front-row forces, taking three props, David Barnes, David Wilson and Duncan Bell, and leaving behind one senior member of the front row union and an "exasperated" coach who is developing a nice line in gallows humour.
First the prop, David Flatman. Those who know about such things say that Flatman is in the form of his life, playing at least as well as when England capped him eight times, and that it must have been close as to whether he or Barnes got the England call. For his part Flatman admits to nothing more than regular checks of his mobile phone.
He is 29 and approaching the best age for a 18-stone prop. But while the shunting of opposition front rows has made him a Bath favourite for six seasons, it's his rapid one-liners and self-deprecating humour that have lately earned him an irregular berth as one of Sky's analysts with attitude.
So what were his emotions when he heard that his front-row colleague Barnes had been called by England? "Bitterness and jealousy mainly," said Flatman with a swiftness that halts his questioners in their tracks. Then: "It's cool. We're really close mates off the field so I've got two emotions. There's the professional sense in that you always wish it were you, but I wouldn't wish him anything but success now he's got there. He's the sort of player they like. He's very hard working, he'll learn and he's a very fit guy who will impress in that sort of environment."
The only thing Flatman fails to mention is that Barnes, four years the senior loose-head, is also chairman of the players' trade union and found a place among the sport's great and good when Twickenham, worried about drugs and cheating, recently ordered an examination of the game's core values.
However, Flatman is even "cool" about spending the next three weeks easing some younger props into the team to replace the missing tight-heads Wilson and Bell. "When you're out there and about to engage in the first scrum with Saracens or whoever, they're not thinking about me," said Flatman. "They're thinking about survival."
And Bath's coach? This time last year Steve Meehan must have thought the Premiership was a breeze. In his second full season, he was celebrating wins over Leicester and Wasps to make it five from six and a place at the top of the table. Those voices who now point to Flatman's form where hailing the "Bath way" of running rugby, especially as performed by those front row forwards like Matt Stevens and Lee Mears. Since then little has gone right.
First Stevens, Bath and England's first choice tight-head was banned after admitting a cocaine habit, then three more from the first XV, including a captain, went after refusing to take a drug test, and an international lock brought forward his retirement, probably before the drug squad did the job for him.
Now Mears and a whole casualty ward are currently injured, Bath lost to Newcastle at the weekend, making it four defeats and a draw from six games and they are just one off the bottom of the table with unbeaten Saracens next at the Rec.
It wasn't hard reading between the lines today when Meehan admitted life was a bit of a "challenge", but if he was "exasperated" it was only because he does not know who is going to be around to face up to a Saracens front row which can include Test giants from almost all part of the rugby-playing globe. "I expect to be without Wilson and Bell," said Meeham "and over this evening or tomorrow evening we will see what David Barnes is up to. I suppose the exasperation could also come from losing two tight heads. You don't expect that to happen at the beginning of the season when you think you have all your bases covered and you'll be OK."
However, it all seemed fairly mild manner until the coach was asked whether England might take Flatman as well. "Surely they wouldn't take two loose-heads as well as two tight heads," said Meehan, although he admitted he had not spoken to Johnson about the possibility. "They left messages with me saying these guys were coming up, but I haven't talked to them about comparing David Flatman to David Barnes."