Bath will continue putting faith in youth for PREM ‘marathon’

Bath Rugby will continue bringing through young players and putting their faith in them. So says the club’s head of rugby Johann van Graan as he prepares for the visit of Bristol Bears to The Rec on Saturday 25th October.

Bath Rugby will take on Bristol Bears at The Rec on Saturday 25th October in Gallagher PREM Round 5 | Photo © Richard Briggs

The Blue, Black & White go into the Gallagher PREM Round 5 match having lost to a last-gasp penalty at Leicester Tigers on Saturday 18th October – their first setback in the league this season.

Speaking at the reigning champions’ pre-Bristol press conference on Tuesday 21st October, van Graan said: “It’s always a big game [against the Bears]. It’s obviously a rivalry that’s come a long time and there’s some classic matches. But that’s not our focus, our focus is on our performance on the weekend.

“We know that they’re a quality outfit, well coached. They play a specific way and we play specific way and I’m sure for fans all across the Premiership it’ll be nice to watch on Saturday.

“Quinn [Roux] will be fine, he’s recovered [from injury]. Unfortunately Frosty [Dan Frost] broke his hand [against Leicester] so he’ll be out for a number of weeks.

“We won’t see Jaco Coetzee until the new year, we’ll only see Bernard van der Linde in the new year, we’ll only see Sam Harris in the new year and we’ll only see Ciaran Donoghue in the new year.

“And Will Muir has gone for ankle surgery so he’ll be out for a number of weeks.

“We’re very comfortable with the squad, we’ll adapt accordingly and look forward to Saturday.

“We’ll see where we are later in the week. Ted Hill is making his way back [from injury], there’s seven lads away at national [England] camp.

“So we’ll only be together on Thursday and I’ll make the final calls after training.

“Injuries are part and parcel of the game.

“Sometimes you get decisions that go for you and sometimes the decisions go against you.

“Sometimes you win a game that you shouldn’t and sometimes you lose a game that you shouldn’t.

“Each team will go through adversity.

“One thing that we’ve done really well this season and the previous ones is just to look after ourselves. Never too high, never too low, and respect the opposition for what they are.

“I think the Premiership has shown this season once again that anybody can literally beat anybody on the day and we’ve got to make sure that we prepare accordingly.

“We’ve been together as a whole group for three weeks.

“It’s the autumn now, then we’re into one round of Premiership and then into Europe.

“We’ve got Christmas, it almost feels that you’re back into the Six Nations and then once you get to March, there’s eight rounds of the Premiership left.

“So this is a marathon and that’s why you’ve got to make sure you keep developing players.

“I thought Ethan Staddon was fantastic over the weekend [against Leicester], which again shows from a system point of view… every day of training, with the opportunity you get, and then you get performances like that. And so was Louie.

“So that’s a sign that our system works and we’re going to keep investing in our squad.

“We’ve got to make sure that every week we try and get a bit better and then hopefully by all of our performances put together over nine months we’ll be in a spot where we can compete at the back end of the season, so that’s ultimately what we try to do.

“I’ve been involved in over 450 first-class matches. You kind of go through every single emotion. I’d much rather learn by winning than by losing. But I think that’s the reality of professional rugby, sport in general, sometimes you lose in the last play of the game.

“Just because we lost on Saturday doesn’t mean that we really played badly, we actually did some really good stuff in that game. Some things will go for you and some won’t.

“I think the important bit for us is we led with the last play of the game and we actually defended really, really well.

“We pushed them back almost 20 metres and then there’s a high tackle, a fair call by the referee [for a Leicester penalty at the death]. We win together and we lose together. So no drama from our side.

“We took it on the chin, looked at what we could do better throughout the game. Our set-piece clearly wasn’t good enough on Saturday and that’s something that can be worked on in the week.

“Pretty quickly on Monday morning we moved on and looked forward to a great week because it’s always a great occasion [against Bristol].”

Bath back row Josh Bayliss acknowledged that the Bears will provide tough opposition.

He said: “We’ve had some great games over the years, I’ve been involved in some real close affairs. Great running rugby, it’s always tasty but we love playing in these games.

“I’ve been impressed with how they’ve adapted their game slightly [due to injuries] to still play to their strengths.

“They’ve still got some outstanding players on the pitch and I think that’s probably sort of elevated their performance because they know they have to pick up where they’re missing a few players.

“[Bristol’s Fitz Harding is] a brilliant player, I remember watching him play for Durham Uni as well. The way he gets round the park and how he goes about his business is very good.

“He’s got a real rugby brain but he always pops up in the right place and I don’t think that’s a coincidence.”