Van Graan: Victory over Munster no more special than any other win

Johann van Graan insists that his Bath Rugby side’s superb victory over Munster Rugby on Saturday 6th December was not made any sweeter by the fact it came against his former club.

Johann van Graan said the fact that Bath Rugby’s Investec Champions Cup Round 1 win was against his former club Munster Rugby did not make the victory any better | Photo © Bath Rugby

The South African led the Irish side for five years before joining the Blue, Black & White in 2022.

And he masterminded a tremendous 40-14 Bath win over The Red Army when the sides locked horns at a rain-lashed Rec in Investec Champions Cup Round 1, the hosts having swept into a 28-0 lead inside 19 minutes.

When asked by the Echo at his post-match press conference if the success was made better by being against his old employers, the Bath head of rugby said: “No. It’s a very good win, five [Pool 2] points and they didn’t get any league points.

“I think that’s one of our better starts that we’ve had, scoring four tries, I think it was 18 minutes.

“It was important to not let them back in [during the second half], and we won the second half 5-0.

“In terms of because it’s Munster, no [it’s not a better win] – a club we respect, and I thought it was a great occasion, two European teams with amazing supporters.

“We’ve gone through experiences the last three-and-a-half years, and it’s a new competition in the middle of the season. And as we felt last season, small margins, and I think what is impressive tonight is the way that we adapted.

“Just before half-time, we had a talk about the conditions, and Ben [Spencer], Finn [Russell] and Deeg [Tom de Glanville] put us in the right parts of the pitch, and I thought we were pretty lethal with opportunities that we took in their 22. Look, five points and we’ll enjoy that.”

Later in the press conference, van Graan reflected further on his time at Munster – but he made clear that he lives in the now.

He said: “We were in Dublin two weeks ago with our family, for the Springboks Test [against Ireland] and met up with so many of our Irish friends, because we’ve got so many friends still back there.

“Quite a few families from our kids’ school [from the Munster days] came over and visited us, they were at our home this morning.

“So it’ll always be a happy time in our life [being at Munster].

“Our daughter was born there and we absolutely loved our time at Munster. It’s a big chunk of our life that we spent in Castleconnell.

“I keep in contact with so many guys still, so many of the coaching staff and the general staff and the players. I think rugby is about community and I’ve loved my time there.

“Pretty hostile when we walked in, which is typical Munster, and I think that’s why they are so renowned for their travelling support. And I think that’s what the Champions Cup needs, travelling support.

“I’ve found it at Bath, whether we’ve played at Toulouse or at Pau we’ve got a massive travelling support and hopefully it’s the same against Toulon [on Sunday 14th December in Round 2].

“Great memories [from Munster], but I’m in the now and I’m absolutely loving my time at Bath.

“It’s now three-and-a-half years [since I joined Bath], and the people here are fantastic, and starting with the players, they are all in, and we’ve created quite a few moments in time now as reference points.

“Driven by the players, we want to keep getting better, and obviously what happened last season [Bath’s treble win], nobody can ever take away from us.

“It was an amazing nine weeks, but that was because of three years of hard work, and who knows what happens in this competition?

“We say we want to do well in every single game that we play.

“We knew that tonight was a big night for us to start this campaign well, and I thought we did that.

“We’ve got two games in France [the Toulon fixture being followed by a trip to Castres Olympique in Round 3].

“Whether it’s the URC [United Rugby Championship] or Premiership sides, you don’t just go and beat a French side in France.

“The amazing thing about this competition, what I’ve learned is mostly this [the pools] gets done in Round 4.

“Last season, we had Leinster in the Aviva [Stadium in Dublin] and we scored three tries in the first half and it came down to the Bristol versus Clermont [Auvergne] game.

“Speaking to some of our friends from Ireland today, obviously, they [Munster] have got a massive game at Páirc Uí Chaoimh against Gloucester [in Round 2].

“So for all teams in our pool, who knows what might happen over the next two rounds? I think there’s so much rugby being played, a lot can happen in a week – and as we all know, a week is a long time in rugby.”

Van Graan said that Bath want to learn from every match they play.

“I think what we try to do is keep getting better and keep learning from games,” he said.

“What we did do well tonight is we dominated the air and the floor in the kicking game.

“I thought we put their scrum under pressure, and then we made some very good calls in terms of what we do on the pitch.

“You start 28-0 and then you’ve got to manage the rest of the game because you’ve got what you need.

“You just got to make sure they don’t get their way back into the game.

“Game drivers got us in the right position.

“So I thought at maul we were dominant and then I thought at scrum time we had the ascendency.

“If you look at them, they’re very comfortable to defend kind of around the 22-metre line. Where they’ve been under a bit of pressure specifically in the last few weeks is five metres out.

“So we just need to make sure we get some entries and I thought we did that well.

“On the flip side, we’ve got a lot of respect for them and knew that they would keep coming and at half-time the game wasn’t over. I think what we then did really well is we let them play in their own half – and in the conditions that was pretty difficult to do.

“So I think the only try of the second half is a good example of they just couldn’t stop all the holes any more. But I think tactically we managed it well. We stuck to our plan, and ultimately we scored four tries in the first 18 minutes, which showed our dominance.”

Of Bath being bigged up by people outside the club for success in Europe this term, van Graan said: “You’ve just got to focus on yourself and it’s something that we’ve become good at. Going to France next Sunday is a different challenge than tonight.

“People will say what they say [about Bath’s abilities to go all the way in the competition], we’ll just keep doing what we’re doing.”