Bath’s focus is on getting home advantage in semis, says van Graan

Bath Rugby’s focus is now on sealing home advantage in the Gallagher PREM semi-finals, says Johann van Graan.

Bath Rugby head of rugby Johann van Graan is targeting a home tie here at The Rec in this season’s Gallagher PREM semi-finals, his side having secured their place in the knockout stages by beating Newcastle Red Bulls on Saturday 16th May | Photo © Richard Briggs

By beating Newcastle Red Bulls at The Rec in Round 16 on Saturday 16th May, the second-placed Blue, Black & White secured their place in the league’s knockout stages for the third season running.

And at Bath’s press conference following the 69-12 rout, head of rugby van Graan said: “Home advantage is massive [in a semi-final].

“Yes, you can win away from home – that’s why there’s always two teams in sport.

“But from now on in our focus will be to make sure we play at home.

“We’re in a semi-final now, so that’s the positive, but I think history has shown that it’s a lot easier to play at home than away from home.

“And I think the positive bit is that’s in our hands across the next two rounds of PREM rugby [with Bath playing at Bristol Bears and at home to Leicester Tigers].

“You’ve always got to take your learnings.

“We’ve played in two semi-finals this season. One was in the PREM Cup away against Leicester, and one was away against [Union] Bordeaux [Bègles in the Investec Champions Cup].

“The Bordeaux one, we couldn’t really do anything about it [being away] because they were the number-one seeds.

“I think what we’ve learned the last two seasons, the [2024 PREM] semi-final against Sale came down to a line-out on 76 minutes in the right-hand corner where Niall Annett scored – and the semi-final last season [against Bristol], we were down at half-time and Ted [Hill] scored just after half-time, Joe [Cokanasiga] scored off the line-out, Horse [Will Muir] scored off the line-out and Max [Ojomoh] scored next to the post and we won that game 34-20.

“Points difference is important [as to who finishes where in the play-off places], but we play Bristol on Friday in two weeks [29th May], and then [on Saturday 6th June] we play Leicester who’s obviously a contender as well.

“Who knows what might happen in the next two weeks?

“But for now, we haven’t had a break since the first week in February, which seems such a long time ago, in terms of the PREM Cup and then we played against Bedford [in a friendly] and then home to Saracens and away to Sale [both in the PREM], and so it continued.

“So we’re all looking forward to being away from each other now for a few days, spend some time with our families and just get away from rugby.

“Some players will go to the England set-up for a few days, we’ll see them only Monday week [25th May].

“The players that don’t go will go to all parts of the world – and wherever they go, we’ll see them on Thursday and we’ll have a pretty low training week, and then we’ll get cracking for the last two rounds and see where we end up.

“If I could choose, I’d be in the European final week [instead of having a break].

“We loved the experience in Bordeaux. We’d love to be part of that every single year, and we’d love to go further in that competition, but that wasn’t to be.

“We took some learnings from that game, and last week’s game [a PREM defeat at Exeter Chiefs on Sunday 10th May], so where we are now is qualified.

“So I’m really looking forward to just a few days without going into the office, and that’s not a negative, that’s just a reward for everybody to just get a bit away from rugby, because it’s every single game, every single day, every single week, and I think we need balance in life, so we’re really looking forward to spending some time away.”