Johann van Graan described Bath Rugby’s Gallagher PREM Round 6 win at Saracens as a great advert for the league.
Johann van Graan masterminded a tremendous 36-29 victory for Bath Rugby at Saracens in Gallagher PREM Round 6 | Photo © Bath Rugby
The Blue, Black & White came from 14-0 and 22-10 behind to secure a 36-29 bonus-point victory at the StoneX Stadium on Sunday 30th November.
The result sent the reigning champions to the top of the table, three points clear of second-placed Exeter Chiefs.
And after the tremendous success on Sarries’ artificial surface in Hendon, North London, van Graan – Bath’s head of rugby – said: “Two very good sides.
“They threw [metaphorical] punches, we came back, they came back, we came back, for the last 20 it became a pressure game. What a great advert for the PREM.
“I was watching on Friday night, the Exeter-Sale game, and thought ‘We’ve got some good teams in this league’, and I think there were two very good teams this afternoon.
“The challenge for us is obviously in Bath we don’t have a pitch like this. I gave a lot of the players off til Wednesday and then til Friday, so some of the guys only joined us on Friday, so we made a decision with the short turnaround to Munster [in the Investec Champions Cup on Saturday 6th December] to not go and train on a pitch like this, and that’s why playing at home is an advantage.
“We knew they were going to start fast, and then we adapted after 20 minutes I thought really well.
“Currently Saracens is a team that offloads the most.
“What they do really well on this plastic pitch of theirs is they dominate momentum up top and they get the ball away. They’ve got some fantastic players.
“And it’s like any team, once you get quick ball, it’s so difficult to stop. They cut us on the edges, at least they didn’t cut us through the middle, so we kept going, and then look at where we scored our tries. It was mostly on the outside.
“Both teams really played well. I thought resilience was good from us.
“The maul now and the play around the maul, even Will Butt’s try from the quick tap, it’s a whole 15 now.
“The game has moved on so much over the last two years and we learned so much from the autumn internationals.
“So every phase is actually a whole 15 bit and I thought we used the opportunities pretty well, specifically in the second half.”
Of what he said in the dressing rooms at half-time with Bath five points behind, van Graan said: “I thought early on, they won the aerial and the floor battle and we said ‘Let’s get the ball in our hands’ and I just said to the lads how good it is to be back as a group because we like our time together.
“It’s been five weeks since that Bristol game [in PREM Round 5] and I said ‘Let’s just go and be ourselves’ – and we certainly were ourselves in that second half.”
Young number 8 Arthur Green made an impressive display – and earned the praise of van Graan.
“This is our fourth year together, so we made decisions at the top, and now they’re all coming through the bottom,” said van Graan.
“That quarter-final last year against Quins in the PREM Cup, he was the man-of-the-match performance.
“He’s got lovely feet. All of our loose forwards have got something a bit different, and he’s got a natural feel for the game.
“He always turns up in the right place at the right time.
“This was his biggest game yet and I thought he did really, really well.”
Another fine performance came from Miles Reid, who wore 7.
The head of rugby said: “He’s definitely a glue player but he’s got everything to play right to the top.
“If you go back to the [2024-25] Premiership final, when he played at 8, and look at his carries, and look at the right place, right time… unfortunately he plays in a position, not only at Bath but England, that’s stacked with some world-class players. But week in and week out, he’s one of our best players, the ultimate clubman, and we’re so lucky to have him.
“What makes him so good, he can play 6, 7 and 8. The last year, we’ve used him mostly at 8, the last two weeks – last week against Sale in the PREM Cup [as well as at Saracens] – he played 7, so can’t speak highly enough of him as a leader and as a player.”
As has happened regularly this season, van Graan hailed winger Henry Arundell for his pace. Another burst of speed saw the 23-year-old run in from 80 metres to score Bath’s opening try at Saracens.
“He’s by far the quickest in the squad,” said van Graan. “He’s one of the quickest players in world rugby and he wants to get better, and he’s certainly going to get a lot better.
“I think if you look at the main things for a winger, always finishes, he can finish, he’s got out and out speed.
“He worked on his defence, both in England and at Bath – that intercept try, which was a big moment in the game.
“We spoke about his aerial work, and he’s worked so hard on his contact skills, so that’s a sign of a player that wants to improve, a player that went away, came back, and is hungry to play for us, and he’s hungry to play for this country.”
