TOM Homer hopes to make the most of his opportunity and make the Bath Rugby full-back shirt his own in the next few weeks.

Having sat on the bench for Bath’s trilogy of January European fixtures, Homer was restored to the starting line-up for last Saturday’s Aviva Premiership game away at Saracens.

Homer grabbed his chance with both hands, scoring Bath’s only try as they went down to an agonising 19-13 defeat to the league leaders.

With Anthony Watson now away on England duty for the Six Nations, Homer is likely to get many more minutes over the coming weeks and stake another claim for the 15 jersey.

“Hopefully I can get a good run of games. There’s lots of competition in the squad in the back-three places but there’s a couple of guys away at the moment,” said 25-year-old Homer, who joined Bath from London Irish a year ago.

“I’m hungry to play as much as I can and make the most of the opportunities I get.

“I’m just going to work hard in training and try to perform as well as I can on the pitch on Friday night.”

The first challenge facing Homer is tomorrow evening’s West Country derby against Gloucester at The Rec and there is no shortage of motivation in the Bath camp.

“It’s going to be an amazing atmosphere. I played in the pre-season games against them but I don’t think that’s quite the same,” said Homer.

“The players have been speaking about it and it really is a unique game. It means a lot to us and our supporters and we are hungry to do well.

“It’s a short turnaround because it’s a Friday game so we’ll probably watch a few more videos and have a little bit less time on the training pitch but we’ll be just as prepared as we usually are.”