Johann van Graan was delighted by the way his Bath Rugby side recovered from the shock of falling 12-0 behind early on to thump hosts Harlequins 47-31 in their Gallagher PREM opener.
Johann van Graan said the Bath coaching team were calm at half-time, despite the PREM champions trailing Harlequins here at Twickenham Stoop | Photo © Richard Briggs
The reigning champions conceded two tries in the first nine minutes of the Round 1 clash at the Twickenham Stoop Stadium on Friday 26th September but hit back with seven touchdowns to chalk up a statement victory.
After the match in West London, van Graan – the Blue, Black & White’s head of rugby – said: “I’m very glad about the five points. You don’t just come here and get five points.
“Two years ago, we were down by something like 42-3 at half-time and last season we won it here in the last minute. So very happy about the five.
“The clunk in the first half, I thought Quins started the set plays pretty well, put us under pressure. We responded pretty well within the breakdown battle.
“We didn’t react quick enough. Very happy with half-time 17-14 [behind] and then, as always, good composure, adaptation at half-time and credit to the players [for] the way we started that second half. We scored straight away and I’m very happy about the 47 points.”
Of Bath’s difficult start to the match, he said: “We had a very good week, we had a good warm-up. I think two good teams having a go at each other, we’re away from home, they were at home.
“They got some quick ball, our first line-out play we broke them on the edge and they got a turnover, then we scored and they got the turnover from the kick-off. So that’s what happened when two good teams play against each other.
“Across the 80, very happy that we got all 23 guys on the pitch and we’re happy that we’ve got five points away from home.”
When asked by the Echo if he could reveal what he said to his team at half-time, van Graan said: “It’s kind of the same every single week, we’re pretty calm as coaches, JP [Ferreira] the defence, Lee [Blackett] the attack, Blazey [Richard Blaze] the forwards and then the players themselves, Ben [Spencer] and Charlie [Ewels] specifically, and we said that from a clinical point of view we need to sort out our breakdown – and we certainly did that in the second half.
“Quins gave us one or two kick-counter opportunities and the players worked back and we played the whole 80 minutes positive but we used our chances in that second half and, again, very well done.”
Because of injury and unavailability, Max Ojomoh – usually a centre – played at fly-half, a position he occupied in the pre-season game at Worcester Warriors on Friday 19th September. And Ojomoh’s display against the Quarters impressed both van Graan and skipper Spencer.
A standout moment for Ojomoh came when he lofted a magnificent long pass for Henry Arundell to score in the left corner to put the Blue, Black & White 26-17 ahead in the 57th minute.
The head of rugby said: “The amazing thing about the squad is even if it needs them to put up their hands, they’ll do it and they’ll do whatever the team needs.
“Max is one of our centres and I made a decision to go with him the last two weeks and he’s just responded with a smile said ‘Just let me go’ and I thought very good guidance from Ben on his inside and Cameron [Redpath] on his outside.
“Max isn’t going to play fly for us long term. But the message to Max was ‘You just make a decision and the other 14 will back you’ and I thought he did that really well tonight.”
Spencer added: “He plays the game a lot like Finn [Russell]. He doesn’t worry too much about making mistakes and wants to play the game with a smile on his face.
“More often than not, you’ve just got to calm him down a little bit and give him a little bit of guidance here and there. It’s something we spoke a little bit about at half-time.
“But I thought he did really well. The ball over the top for Henry’s [first] try I thought was brilliant. The way he spots space like that, it’s a huge strength in his game.”
As for the dangerous Arundell, van Graan said: “When Henry and I spoke originally before he went to Paris [to play for Racing 92], I said to him that one thing nobody in the world can coach is speed – he’s express.
“The most pleasing thing about him is he’s put his head down and worked and wanted to learn and he’s fitted in so well. He’s going be a very important squad member of ours in the coming years.
“What he’s added is variety to our wingers. Joe [Cokanasiga] is the power winger, Horse [Will Muir] is the contesting winger, Henry is the speedy winger, although some of the others might contest that, just as fast, but the ability to be in the right place at the right time is something that’s kind of a gift of his and I’m sure he’ll just keep on improving.”
Spencer added: “We saw it a few times tonight – you get the ball to him [Arundell] and he makes something happen, and it’s always unbelievable to have people like that in those positions. The more we can get the ball in our wings’ hands then the better for us. He played really well tonight. He had a few great touches.
“But I think there’s loads to work on out of this game and that’s the exciting thing for us. As long as we look to keep getting better each week, we’ll be all right.”
Jason Gilmore, who was named Quins’ senior coach just a week before the clash with Bath, acknowledged that the loss of his two hookers through injury played its part in the visitors’ success.
He said: “We played a really good first half in terms of the plan and how we wanted to play. We want to be really positive with the football and go after four-try bonus points.
“The start of the second half, a poor kick chase led to a try [for Beno Obano] straight away, and then we lose two hookers off the back of that. We didn’t really recover, we started losing the aerial battle and then we lost the territory.
“I’m proud of how the boys fought back at the end.”
