Hooper's 'big decision' reaction to van Graan's Bath appointment
Bath director of rugby Stuart Hooper has spoken for the first time since the English club confirmed the appointment of Munster boss Johann van Graan as the new head coach for the 2022/23 season. The still-rookie director has overseen a brutal start to the current campaign, Bath losing all nine Gallagher Premiership matches so far and they followed that dreadful domestic run with last Saturday’s Champions Cup hammering by Leinster.
They brought in ex-Saracens CEO Nick Griffiths at the end of October to conduct a root and branch review of the club’s set-up and aside from the urgent need to appoint a defence coach, something confirmed on Tuesday with the recruitment of Brent Janse van Rensburg, it also emerged that bringing in a new head coach was a necessity.
Aside from reaching the semi-finals of the post-lockdown 2019/20 Premiership season, Hooper’s reign as director of rugby since his appointment in 2019 has left much to be desired results-wise and it has now led to Bath recruiting van Graan five years after a 2016 approach for the then Springboks assistant came to nought.
Now, though, they have got their timing right, van Graan reportedly so keen to move to England that he invoked a break clause in a newly inked contract extension that was set to keep him at Munster until summer 2024.
The only surprise about van Graan’s appointment is that Hooper hasn’t paid a price for his involvement in the mess that the 2021/22 season has been so far, although the Bath media statement accompanying their new head coach announcement did state that van Graan “will hold full responsibility for our game”.
'It’s ten Ls now on the bounce for the English side and six minutes of listening to Stuart Hooper and Charlie Ewels in Dublin left you wondering if this duo is in denial about the crisis their club is in' @heagneyl ???#BathRugby #LEIvBAT https://t.co/Gn6HlgJCxA
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 12, 2021
What that precisely means was something put to Hooper at his first media briefing since the midweek development that Bath had secured the services of van Graan. “In the head coach/director of rugby set-up, the head coach has responsibility for the 80 minutes and what goes into that, so the training. The director of rugby has a wider, slightly longer looking role around making sure that everything is in place and the environment and conditions are in place for those 80 minutes to be the absolute best they can be.
“Of course, the 80 minutes is the bit that is seen but the 10,000 minutes and the work that goes into that is incredibly important to allow people to go out and perform to the best they can be. That is the premise really of a head coach/director of rugby system.
“I am at the sessions, I am on the grass at the sessions, my role within the sessions is observational and questioning and helping the coaches about what we are trying to achieve and how we are doing it, and with the players as well. I don’t coach a specific part of the game. That is the reflection in this system.”
Asked about why someone like van Graan was needed when Bath had come into the 2021/22 season believing they were on track for success with Neal Hatley as head coach under Hooper, the director of rugby suggested: “It is something that is a big decision for the club and an awful lot of work has gone into it and rightly so. It is a big decision and needs an awful lot of input and it has had that and it’s fantastic to be able to announce it.
“The whole reason that we are making this change is it’s a development for the club we want. We have very high standards, very, very high ambitions and we want to meet those and we clearly have to do things somewhat differently than we are now to allow that to happen.
“This is something that has obviously been well thought through and having Johann on the ground is the time we will see it all in place but there is lots gone into it and it needs a lot more to go into it in the next few months to make sure we get it all right.
“As a club, this is the longest run-in to having a head coach named. It is important that the time we have between now and the start of July when pre-season is used as purposely as possible to make sure there is the very, very best impact but also to respect Johann’s current employment. He is a great man who is doing great things at Munster and will continue to do that for the rest of this season and we are not going to interfere with that but we are obviously going to be having conversations to ensure that this run-in we have is used in the best possible way for this club.”
Curiously, at his midweek Munster media briefing, van Graan didn’t go into detail about his reasons for leaving the Irish province for a club wallowing in the doldrums of English rugby. “I’m not going to give any message at this stage,” he said guardedly. “All I would say is that I took my time, I took a step backwards, I looked at my personal position and that of my family and what I think is the best for Munster and I’ll be moving on at the end of the season.”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments