'It's great to have him back and see him smile': JvG on Henry Arundell

Johann van Graan has hailed Henry Arundell’s attitude since reporting back for club duty after being dropped by England.

The Bath winger had a rollercoaster Six Nations, becoming the youngest hat-trick scorer for England in the round one win against Wales. He was then sent off in the Calcutta Cup loss to Scotland, having scored one of England’s two tries, before being made a social media scapegoat for the record home defeat to Ireland.

Harlequins winger Cadan Murley came into the team for the final two rounds of the championship, against Italy and France, with Arundell playing for Bath against Bedford in a friendly on the eve of Le Crunch.

“Firstly, it’s great that our players play Test rugby, whether it is for England, Wales, Italy, Scotland, Argentina or South Africa, forgive me if I have missed one,” said the South African.

“We have got an environment where we all feel part of the group and international rugby players will get selected and players will be left out.

“But from our point of view we always welcome them back with open arms.

“I think Henry’s attitude has been fantastic. He trained last week with England and he played 20 minutes for us against Bedford last Friday night with an amazing attitude, and it is great to have him back and seeing him smile.

“As always, we’ll support all our players, and hopefully, the more players we as a club can deliver for nations, the better for us. I want guys to play international rugby

“Ultimately, as I have said before, rugby is like life, you get ups and downs, and you win and you lose.

“I always go back to the saying, ‘never too high, never too low’. You are never as good as they say you are, and you are never as bad as they say you are,

“I think the people you do it with is pretty important. And as a group of staff, as a group of players, and as a wider club, we are loving what we are doing and it’s great that people are playing with smiles on their faces for Bath.”

Under the terms of the EPS agreement, Van Graan will give flankers Sam Underhill and Guy Pepper a mandatory week off in the next three weeks, because they were selected for every matchday 23 in the Six Nations.

“As is the same after every tournament, we will have individual conversations with every player,” he said.

“The regulations state that if you played in every Six Nations game you must have a week off in the three games after.

“We see it a bit different. We don’t see it as we have to give players time off, we see it that we have to look after our players because there are so many games. We want players to have time away.

“I’ll use Bay as an example (Josh Bayliss, who was sitting alongside van Graan at the weekly media session), he played in some of the (Scotland) matches and we have got a very good relationship: ‘Do you need time away? Do you need more, do you need less? I think that is the secret of a good system, having an open and honest conversation and making sure you do what’s best for the players.

“Guys have families, girlfriends, partners, and they also want to get away from rugby for some time. I think it is something we do well.”

Ben Spencer missed the Ireland game, and will be managed accordingly, while Ollie Lawrence played just once (v Ireland) before picking up another injury.

However, Lawrence is now fit and raring to renew his centre partnership with Max Ojomoh, who was somehow overlooked by Steve Borthwick, during the Six Nations, as Bath prepare to face Saracens in the PREM at The Rec on Friday night.

“He (Lawrence) played 14 minutes for us on Friday evening, scored two tries, and, yeah, he’s available for selection,” van Graan confirmed.