'Close to the best nine in the world': Johann van Graan after final win

Bath head coach Johann van Graan has hailed his captain Ben Spencer as “close to the best nine in the world” after guiding his side to a historic treble.

The scrum-half played every minute of Bath’s 23-21 victory over Leicester Tigers in the Gallagher Premiership final, capping a season where the West Country outfit also picked up the Premiership Rugby Cup and the Challenge Cup.

Following the win, van Graan lauded the wider squad effort, embodied internally by the colour purple, in delivering such a trophy-laden season.

But he was not shy in dishing out praise towards his captain, who will be knocking on the door of an England recall next week ahead of their tour of Argentina.

“To the outside world, you won’t appreciate what the colour purple means to this group,” Bath’s head of rugby said.

“It’s easy to be in when you’re selected and when you’re starting or on the bench. The colour purple makes this group.

“I don’t know if you saw when we got off the bus, everyone in the squad was wearing purple. We got better together.

“Whether it’s Tom Dunn who’s played close to 300 games, or Ben Spencer, who in my opinion is close to the best nine in world rugby as he’s shown as he’s shown in the last two finals. Whether you’re Ciaran Donoghue who’s broken into the group, whether you’re Ruaridh McConnochie who retires tonight, whether you’re oldest or youngest – purple.

“That’s togetherness and that’s something we’ve created together. It’s not me, it’s all of us together. That’s something that will stay with me about this team, the colour purple.”

Spencer found himself in Leicester’s position this time last year, but after a dominant campaign in the league, where Bath comfortably topped the table, they entered this final as firm favourites.

It was actually the dominance in the league that was the cause of mental anguish for the Englishman towards the back-end of the season, as he admitted he had played the semi-final “hundreds of times” in his head after Bath booked their home play-off.

After a torturous few weeks, he confessed there was a sense of “relief” when the final whistle was blown.

“Just relief, I think,” he said when asked how he felt come the end of the match.

“Just relief, pride, this has taken a lot of hard work from a lot of people. To get the mindset right when you qualify for the play-offs as early as we did is quite tough.

“The amount of times I played that semi-final in my head – hundreds of times. Day in, day out, it was ‘who are we going to get?’ It’s a hard place to be mentally. Just relief, not just for me, but the players and the staff and the fans.”