Being able to play in several positions is a key part of a rugby player’s skillset these days, according to Bath Rugby’s Johann van Graan.
Johann van Graan at Bath Rugby’s pre-Investec Champions Cup Round 2 press conference on Wednesday 10th December | Photo © Bath Rugby
At the club’s pre-Investec Champions Cup Round 2 press conference on Wednesday 10th December, the Blue, Black & White’s head of rugby said: “If you look at what we’ve done with signing players is signing players that can play multiple positions.
“The first time I saw Henry [Arundell], a few years ago, was when he played full-back for [London] Irish and he’s developed his game so much since.
“The Saracens game [in the Gallagher PREM on Sunday 30th November], the last 20 minutes he actually played at full-back and Max [Ojomoh] was on the wing.
“So that’s definitely an option for us.
“So Henry can play wing, he can play full-back, he can play centre at a push.
“Santi [Carreras] is 10 and a 15 that can play wing and can cover at centre.
“I think the way the game is going, players need to be able to play multiple positions.
“Do I think Henry can play international rugby at both wing and full-back? Yes – but that’s not my decision.
“I think what we’ve done well with our group is guys know when they’re going to play and what positions they’re going to play.
“And ultimately it’s a team game and you’ve got to make sure you look after our players.
“So do I think that currently what the game suggests is that you need players that can play multiple positions? Yes. I think it’s a balance within the team.
“You still need certain bits. From a forwards point of view, props need to scrum, locks need to jump and to scrum, hookers need to throw.
“I think the interesting bit is what you do with your loose forwards and your centres specifically. And then also look at certain body types.
“If I take you back to what we did last season, we played Northampton, we went with a seven-one split [on the bench] and [back row] Josh Bayliss played most of the game on the wing.
“But you can’t just have 15 hybrid players in your team.”
Van Graan said that he and Argentinian star Carreras, who made his Blue, Black & White debut in October, clicked at their first meeting.
“Santi came here to be a part of a special group of people that want to keep getting better,” said van Graan. “The first time we met, we just clicked in terms of we want the same thing.
“He’s Argentinian, I’m South African, family is very important to us. We both love the game of rugby and I think balance in life and he’s chosen to come to us and we’re very glad about that.”
Carreras said of his time with the club: “I’m enjoying every minute of being here. The lads, the coaching, everyone welcomed me. I feel so good here, so just trying to enjoy every minute. I think everyone’s really on his job.
“I’m enjoying playing rugby. In the last few months, I’ve been playing 10, 15, covering wherever for Argentina, same as here. So I’m happy to help the team, wherever it needs.”
Van Graan provided a detailed update on the club’s injury situation.
Of prop Will Stuart, who went off injured after 50 minutes of the Champions Cup Round 1 victory over Munster Rugby, van Graan confirmed the fears he expressed when he spoke at his press conference following that Saturday 6th December fixture.
“He’s ruptured his Achilles,” said van Graan on 10th December.
“He’ll get operated on in the next few weeks – and unfortunately with an Achilles, there’s a long road ahead.
“Every injury is a bit different. For a prop, just think of the amount of load that goes through your legs.
“But we’ve got an amazing medical team here and we’ve dealt with this injury before [Ollie Lawrence ruptured his Achilles in March and returned to action in September]. The most important [thing] is that we get to the operation and then we move forward.
“Injuries are part and parcel of the game, but once it’s an Achilles or an ACL [anterior cruciate ligament] or a neck, big injuries that take people away from the game for a long time, that’s never nice to see.
“Gutting really [about Stuart]. He’s such a big part of what we do and what we’ve achieved.
“The positive part of that is he’s got an amazing group of staff and players and family around him. And we’ll go through that journey with him every step of the way.”
Van Graan added: “Guy [Pepper] came off [against Munster] with an ankle [problem]. He’ll be out for a few weeks. We were pretty proactive with that decision.
“Ollie Lawrence is back in training [following a hamstring injury picked up while playing for England in November]. We’re working together with England to make a decision as to when he’ll play. And hopefully that’s before the before the new year.
“Alfie Barbeary is back in full training. He was available for last week.
“Will Muir was available for selection last week, but unfortunately right at the back end of the week he picked up a calf injury, so nothing related to the ankle. So he’ll be out for an additional few weeks, which is frustrating for him, but hopefully we’ll have him back on the field soon.”
And van Graan had some good news about scrum-half Bernard van der Linde, one of the long-term injured. “Bernard did a few things around the field in the last few days. So he’s definitely ahead of the others,” he said.
“I think that’s a given in rugby, you’ll get injuries, and that’s why you can’t just rely on 15 players and 23 players, and that’s something we’ve been very clear on in the last three-and-a-half years. It’s all about the squad and in each position we’ve created depth.
“The first year, we made quite a large personnel change from the top end, but in the last few years we’ve only brought in five players and four players and it’s amazing to see all the younger lads playing and performing.
“Whether it’s Ethan Staddon or Ewan Richards or Billy [Vilikesa] Sela, Ciaran Donoghue, Louie Hennessey, whoever it was, over the last number of months they’ve put up their hands. The important bit is you set players up to perform – and I think that’s something that we’ve done well.”
With Thomas du Toit set to leave Bath at the end of the season to return to his homeland South Africa and with Stuart facing months of recovery, van Graan has weighed up his options.
He said: “I’m always looking at what’s going on in the world of rugby.
“The option to use injury dispensation is there should we want it or should we need it.
“I think you’ve also got to look at being proactive, what the rest of your squad looks like from a prop point of view.
“And we’ve worked very hard on our depth. Billy has come through our system. He started the first two PREM games of the season, played for England A.
“Griff [Archie Griffin] has started for Wales in the autumn, and one of the unsung heroes is Keiran Verden, who, whenever he plays in the PREM Cup, he always performs.
“That’s the pure tightheads.
“We’ve got Mikey Summerfield in the background who’s currently away for a week or two with an injection.
“So we’ll take our time and I think it’s also [a case of] see what the market does and see how we perform.
“You need multiple tightheads as you need multiple players because the season is so long, we’re not even in the middle of December yet, so up until May, then you’ll see if you get into play-off games.
“So they’ve got a long time to go, but we’ll look at both avenues, looking at what we have and potentially looking at ‘What can we do?’.
“Thomas is one of the best players in world rugby. I think the fact that he can play and start Test rugby at both loosened and tighthead like that is such a difficult thing to do and such an uncommon thing currently in the game.
“Thomas will leave Bath as a Bath legend. I think the impact that he’s had within the squad is more than he’s had to the outside world.
“So someone like Thomas is irreplaceable, there’ll only ever be one Thomas du Toit.”
When it was put to van Graan that he might like to sign Kyle Sinckler, a key player for Bath’s Sunday 14th December opponents RC Toulon, he said: “There’s many very good tightheads in the world. Kyle’s a fantastic player, many battles with him when I was with South Africa and he was with England and obviously Bristol-Bath.
“There’s many players that we could look at but I’m not going to speculate on any individual.”
When questioned about Bath conceding 16 penalties against Munster, who gave away six, van Graan said: “Our penalty count has been really good across the season – actually, across the last three seasons. We want to concede as few penalties as possible.
“Some of it is interpretation, some of it we need to be better at and there’s some repeat penalties for, for instance, stopping a maul, or some of it was free-kicks. So it’s certainly not a concern for us.
“If we could concede the zero penalties in every game, obviously that’s the first prize but we didn’t spend a massive amount of time on it. We touched on it on Tuesday and moved on.
“We took our learnings from a European point of view, because we had a French referee [Jeremy Rozier], which I thought was very good in the game.
“This weekend we’ve got [Georgian referee] Nika [Amashukeli], who we had in the Challenge Cup semi-final away to Edinburgh [last season], and that’s just the name of the game, be adaptable and be fluid to refereeing decisions and just get on with it, and I thought that’s what we did on Saturday.”
