JOSH Bayliss says Bath’s top young talent are itching for their chance to impress as attentions turn to the Anglo-Welsh Cup this weekend.

The competition has traditionally been used to give stars of the future their taste of first-team action, with the opening two rounds coinciding with the start of autumn international fixtures.

While plenty of Bath’s stellar names have been away with their respective national teams this week, it has allowed director of rugby Todd Blackadder and his coaching team this chance to fine-tune the skills of some of their youngsters.

Twenty-year-old back row Bayliss is one such of those and cannot wait to get into the action as Bath open their Pool One campaign with a trip to London Irish on Saturday.

“I am really looking forward to it, I can’t wait. It’s great for the boys to be away after their call-ups but it gives me a bit of an opportunity as well,” said Bayliss.

“It is great to have the whole squad at training but they have earned their call-ups and it gives some of the younger guys a bit more time to run some reps with the coaches.

“It’s great to have so many world class boys to learn from. I have been travelling reserve a few times this season too so that has given me that experience of a game-day environment.

“London Irish are a massive threat. We are going at the game as we would any other. It is a huge challenge, especially away, so we are just looking at ourselves and trying to put the type of performance in that we will need if we are going to come out with a win.

“We are going out there to win and we want to win the competition too. There is definitely a little bit of pressure but we are just going to have fun and enjoy the opportunity.”

Bath wing Semesa Rokoduguni has been called up to the England squad ahead of the autumn internationals after an injury to Wasps’ Elliot Daly.

Scrum-half Max Green, 21, and centre Max Wright, 20 have joined Bath from Yorkshire Carnegie.