Bulls to Bath: 'Bernard is a bit different, he's a different kind of nine'

After a delayed start to his competitive career at Bath, South African scrum-half Bernard van der Linde is starting to make a big impact with his cameo displays off the bench.

The summer signing from Johann van Graan’s old club, the Vodacom Bulls, suffered a hamstring injury in a pre-season friendly against Worcester and didn’t make it back onto the pitch until the start of 2026, debuting in the PREM win away to Gloucester.

While a stranger to the West Country rivalry up until that point, van der Linde wasted no time in getting under the skin of longstanding Cherry & Whites servant Lewis Ludlow, and since then he’s continued to be an irritant – in the finest tradition of scrum-half play – by squaring up to much larger opponents.

Crucially for Bath, the 1.75m tall van der Linde has proved he can also let his rugby do the talking with some brilliant sniping runs.

In transition play, the 25-year-old has proved to be deadly. Van der Linde is excellent at second-guessing when the ball might come his way, scoring two breakaway tries in the PREM wins against Saracens and Sale, as well as clocking up some impressive numbers in the Oval Insights stats categories.

Only taking into account players who have made at least three league appearances, van der Linde has the best scoring strike rate of any nine in the league, and has made the most metres, clean breaks and tackles attempted, and the second-most defenders beaten, when his 80-minute average is calculated from the 47 minutes of PREM game time that he has so far enjoyed.

Assessing his scrum-half stocks, van Graan said: “Firstly, I have to mention Ben (Spencer) and TC (Tom Carr-Smith). Ben just slotted straight back in; the fact that he plays such a solid game, the fact that he and Finn complement each other so well, people just assume it is got to be that way. But his attitude (post-Six Nations) was amazing coming back in after playing in the French Test.

“TC has had a really good season, he’s had a few starts now, he just fits in seamlessly, and there’s one more to mention, Ieuan Davies started the PREM Cup semi-final, and all of a sudden, we have another guy pushing through. So I am very happy with our resources at nine.”

Meanwhile, van Graan revealed that van der Linde is someone who he’s been keeping his eye on for a while.

“Bernard is a bit different, he is a different kind of nine. I’d say he is a physical nine, he’s a nine that loves contact.

“In composing our squad, I was looking for something a bit different, and I saw something in Bernard’s play a few years ago that made me think, ‘hang on, this guy is good’, and one of my very good rugby friends, Fourie du Preez, also saw something in him and the two of us chatted about Bernie way back.

“Yes, he is certainly competitive, whether it is training or in the game, he gets stuck in straight away.

“He has certainly got attributes specifically coming from the bench that I think will be good for us.

“We are going to use players in dfiferent ways, and I think we have a good blend of nines.”