'Gold': The glowing Bath verdict on Springboks prop Thomas du Toit

Johann van Graan has described the massive impact of Thomas du Toit at Bath this season as “gold”. The Springboks front-rower joined the Gallagher Premiership club from the Sharks in Durban, and he has helped to transform the English strugglers into a team that is now threatening to win the league for the first time since 1996.

The 28-year-old has made 16 appearances in a campaign that has lifted Bath into second in the Premiership and will see them visit Exeter next weekend in an Investec Champions Cup round-of-16 tie.

Ten of those appearances have been as a starter and so important has he been to the general on-field improvement that he stayed on for 79 minutes in last weekend’s league win over Sale – an unusually long time for a tighthead.

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The versatile front-rower has also scored eight tries across both competitions and he will be now looking to add to his highlights reel when Bath visit Harlequins this Saturday in round 14 of the 18-round Premiership.

Asked by RugbyPass to summarise the influence that du Toit has wielded, van Graan said: “I saw an opportunity from a salary cap perspective that you need a prop that can play both sides of the scrum and I searched for, in my view, the best player in the world that fits that and Thomas has been even better than expected.

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“He is durable, he can play 80 minutes as a loosehead and as a tighthead. He is incredibly good as a defender because that what tightheads need to do. They need to scrum, they need to defend, and then if you can add the things that he can do.

“He can poach, he is explosive. Some of the tries he has scored from 20 yards out. The try against Northampton, but what he has added to his game now is he is one of the best two or three metres out.

“In my view the guys who are close to the best in the world, guys like (Andrew) Porter, like (Gavin) Coombes of Munster, Thomas du Toit is there now with two or three metres out. The number of times he will touch the ball and he scores.

“The next bit is he is incredibly disciplined. He doesn’t really give scrum penalties and he is dependable. So yeah, he has become a very big player for us.

“I want to emphasise the squad: the props understand that guys feed off each other. We are going to alternate, we have got some very good props in Beno (Obano), Thomas, Will (Stuart), Archie (Griffin), and one or two guys coming in behind them, so Thomas has been gold for us, and has been a brilliant signing.”

What’s he like away from the pitch? “Very solid human being, family man, likes his shorts, likes fishing, and likes spending time with the boys. You know, he and Tom Dunn became friends instantly, like they had been friends for years so he has fitted into what we do here at Bath.

“When we spoke (before signing), an incredible attribute of Thomas is he wants to get better. He said, ‘Coach, I need to come to Bath to become better’. I believe he is a better player now than he was 10 months ago.”

Bottom line: Has du Toit surprised van Graan in any way? “No, I pretty much got what I signed up for. What I would say is when I call a player world-class, what I mean by that is he doesn’t really play below eight out of 10.

“If you play 30 games across a season and you perform above eight out of 10 every weekend, that is very good and he has not had a bad game for Bath. In fact, every game you see him he is one of our best players.”