Bath Rugby head of rugby Johann van Graan described skipper and scrum-half Ben Spencer as “a phenomenal player” following another superb performance by the England star.
Johann van Graan, Bath’s head of rugby, said he cannot speak highly enough of Ben Spencer’s game management in the wins over Sale Sharks and Harlequins | Photo © Richard Briggs
The former Saracens man ran the game for the Blue, Black & White as they dispatched Sale Sharks 28-16 in dreadful weather conditions at The Rec on Friday 3rd October to record their second Gallagher PREM bonus-point victory in two games.
Van Graan said: “In those conditions, to kick the kicks that he kicked and to manage the game like he did, he’s a phenomenal player. And he showed it for us at the back end of last season, he showed it for England against Argentina [in the summer].
“He’s been fantastic the last two weekends in taking control and taking pressure off our backline and taking our forwards forward. I can’t speak highly enough of Ben in terms of game management.
“Whenever Ben finishes in many years to come, he’ll always look back when he’s not here and realise how good he is.”
Another player to impress van Graan in the Round 2 fixture was centre Ollie Lawrence, who set up Henry Arundell to run in Bath’s opening try.
“We spoke about collecting the ball on the floor,” said van Graan. “For that first try he collected it. He shrugged off the defender and that getaway was pretty good, and excellent finish by Henry.
“Great to have Ollie back. I thought he carried well, defended well.
“We transitioned in the backfield quite a bit with Max [Ojomoh] and our centres and our wingers and our full-backs, so good performance by him [Lawrence] but good performance by all.
“He [Lawrence] was fantastic in training this week as well. All of our backs were fantastic in training in terms of speed.
“We trained in beautiful sunshine in the week and everybody looked so fast and then you get these conditions tonight, but that’s about being adaptable.
“If you look at where he [Lawrence] was when he was injured in the Six Nations [in March] and where he is now, incredible story and that needs to be celebrated not only to Ollie but to the medical team and everybody that helped him get back to where he is at now.”
Van Graan admitted that the game was tight for spells – and Sale looked a good side.
He said: “It was two very good sides that went into battle, very difficult conditions for both.
“They started with that first penalty and then we scored a try. It became 7-6 and then I thought we dominated the second 20 minutes, 20 to 40.
“21-9 at half-time and then one ball goes on the floor and that’s so difficult in these conditions and then we stopped him, we actually got the ball back again and got penalised in the scrum and they went again to the corner and then it became a five-point game.
“Very tight up until just into the 70s and then what a fantastic kick by Ben and finished by Max. In the overall scheme of things, five points to us and zero to them in very difficult conditions. Very happy with that.”
Unfortunately for the Blue, Black & White, they lost forwards Charlie Ewels, Quinn Roux and Ted Hill to injury.
“Charlie knee, Quinn looks like potentially both knees and Ted, that looks like an ankle,” said van Graan. “If you just look at the Premiership last weekend and obviously we’re the first game this weekend, a lot of big trauma injuries. All teams will get it, it’s who deals with it the best.
“We’ll just make sure that we look after them and it’s next man up.
“That’s what we’ve been doing for the last three-and-a-half years and hence in the PREM Cup you give guys opportunities for when these opportunities come and when the need comes in the first team you use them.
“So we’ll assess them and hopefully we’ll know a bit more by Monday/Tuesday.”
As for a decision on who would step up as lock, van Graan said: “We’ll take our time. I first need to see what the diagnosis is. The first guy is definitely Ewen Richards who’s done really well for us over the last few seasons. It might be Will Jeanes, it might be Harvey Cuckson, we might use some of our loose forwards in the locks.
“We’ll just take our time and see what we need, and look at our opponents and then what does the next few weeks look like because every week in the Premiership is a big game. We’ve got Gloucester at home, Leicester away and then Bristol at home.
“I don’t want to get carried away too much. We’ll enjoy tonight, enjoy the weekend and see what the medical team says on Monday.
“We’re in our fourth year together so we’ve gone through these experiences. I’ll take you back to a few years ago against Leicester in the rain and against Newcastle in the rain, last year in the rain against La Rochelle.
“So as a team you go through experiences together. The main decision maker is your back in terms of getting your front-foot ball – and that was a battle between two very good backs.
“And you’ve got to give credit to Sale as well, and then it comes down to your 19, your 15, they got us in the right field position, and then the aerial battle and I thought that was excellent by Henry if you look at that second half when he won that ball back, and then what happens around the ball, you think about Henry’s try, the ball that Ollie won back.
“So you go for experiences together and importantly you need to adapt on the night and I thought the players adapted really well.
“[It’s down to] trust, belief and going through experiences together, and then it’s down to the players on the pitch to execute on the evening. Scoreline 28-16, that’s a 12-point win in the rain at home, we’ll take the five points.
“It’s important that we back the squad and if we look at what we did last season, we’ll pull the fruit, we’ll get the rewards from backing our squad.
“Great learning school for Vili Sela the last two weeks. I thought Archie Griffin off the bench was fantastic on both weekends. And I can’t speak highly enough of Max the last two weeks, he just got it done, actually the last three weeks if you take the Worcester [Warriors pre-season] game into account as well.”
