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Johann van Graan's verdict on Bath’s impressive victory over Saracens
Johann van Graan hailed Bath’s mental strength and tactical nous after an impressive 25-16 victory over defending champions Saracens at StoneX Stadium.
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The visitors went 7-0 down after an early Andy Christie try, but Tom de Glanville, Miles Reid and Ruaridh McConnochie put Bath in the driving seat at the break.
Alex Lozowski kicked a penalty to reduce the deficit to four points, but Thomas du Toit’s score secured the bonus-point win despite Chris Cloete’s yellow card in the closing stages.
The result leaves Saracens bottom of the Premiership table, while Bath go top after successive bonus-point triumphs.
“The two things that stood out for me today were our mental toughness, we came back straight away with two tries,” said Bath coach Van Graan.
“Then just before half-time, it started to rain, but we adapted our plan and I felt we played the second half in the right parts of the pitch.
“Saracens are a club that I respect so much for what they have achieved on the pitch, and it was a tough battle.
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“We are very happy with the away win, since the first game in the Premiership Rugby Cup and last week, we know our ability to score tries is very important to us.
“The challenge for us is to make sure that we score more than we conceded, and we did that today, so I am very happy with the performance.
“It was a real 23 effort, even the three backs who came on for one minute, it is all about the squad.”
Despite seeing his Sarries side fall to back-to-back defeats, director of rugby Mark McCall was pleased his side improved on last week’s 65-10 loss against Exeter Chiefs at Sandy Park.
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“We struggled at the scrum at times and gave away key penalties there, which gave them the platform to win the match really, but there was some good fight from the team after what happened last week,” said McCall.
“Every time we gave ourselves some field position or some glimmers of hope we kept on making mistakes, which is not surprising in those conditions.
“There is obviously disappointment overall, but some encouragement that we were a lot better and a lot more competitive than we were last week.
“Fair play to Bath, they were very good today, Finn Russell is obviously a good player, but I was more impressed with them as a team, to be honest.
“It is always difficult playing catch up when it was wet like it was, and you keep making simple or basic handling errors when we had some field position.
“We have to work hard and pull in the same direction, which we will, and try to get better week after week.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Let’s not forget about Ardie Savea just yet.
4 Go to commentsThe URC and the Euro Championscup can’t run at the same time, basically dilutes both competitions.
1 Go to comments“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
4 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
4 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
4 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
4 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
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