Bath Rugby have made huge strides in Europe this season, according to Johann van Graan.
Johann van Graan told the press after his side’s Gallagher PREM win over Gloucester Rugby here at Kingsholm Stadium that magic things can happen again for Bath Rugby this year | Photo © Richard Briggs
The head of rugby admitted that the Blue, Black & White have not played to their full potential over 80 minutes yet in 2025-26 but he believes that magic things can happen again during the business end of the campaign.
At the club’s press conference at Kingsholm Stadium after Bath beat Gloucester Rugby 30-26 in Gallagher PREM Round 10 on Friday 23rd January, van Graan said: “If I take a step back, it’s been 46 rounds of the Premiership since the first game of the 2023-24 season that we’ve been in the top four. So we’ve become a team that are very consistent.
“We’re fighting on different fronts.
“We’ve made a huge step up, in my view, in Europe this season.
“I believe we’re the team that uses our squad the most in the Premiership and that means giving guys experiences to go through, and we back our squad.
“I’d say we’ve seen some good 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s [in terms of minutes].
“We knew at the start of the season that when you become the champions, every team would want to take you down, and we’ve accepted that and we’re still trying to get better.
“We’ve got a record amount of players that are [playing international rugby].
“And we’re trying to get into our flow and I think our planning is spot on.
“We’ve won eight out of 10 games in the Premiership.
“We’re four points off the top in the PREM Cup [Pool A] and we won our European pool.
“So for us, we’ll go quietly about our business and hopefully we can keep improving through this break [in PREM action while the Guinness Six Nations takes place].
“More than half of our squad we won’t see for the next two months and then it’s a short turnaround.
“And then we’re well set for the back end of the season and who knows what might happen?
“What we’ve seen is, if we do things our way, run our own race, magic things can happen, and we’re well set for this part of the season.”
Van Graan said that he will face some tough selection decisions once the PREM and the Investec Champions Cup campaigns resume in the spring.
“That’s certainly a challenge but it’s a challenge that we enjoy,” said van Graan.
“I’ll use Bernie [Bernard van der Linde] as an example. Tom Carr-Smith has had a really good season and tonight was Bernie’s opportunity to play, and we all pull together.
“Cam Redpath has had a very good few games, and it’s about squad rotation.
“Alfie Barbeary’s been on fire, but we made this squad [to face Gloucester] with Arthur Green three weeks ago.
“So everybody’s pulling in the same direction and it’s all about the squad.
“The team knows there are certain games [for] which I’ll pick a team that I believe is the best for that specific weekend.”
