Johann van Graan upbeat despite brutal triple whammy of Bath injuries

Bath head of rugby Johann van Graan was hugely satisfied with a 28-16 victory over Sale.

Van Graan was particularly grateful to Ben Spencer for an ice-cool skipper’s performance at scrum-half in very difficult conditions at the Rec.

Reflecting on a bonus-point win, Van Graan said: “When Ben finishes, hopefully not for many years, we’ll look back and realise how good he was. In those conditions, to kick the kicks he did and to manage the game, he is a phenomenal player.

“He showed it for us at the end of last season, also for England in Argentina and he’s shown it these last two games, taking control and taking pressure off our back line.”

Van Graan was just as pleased that England centre Ollie Lawrence is very much back and firing on all cylinders after rehab for a ruptured Achilles tendon playing for England in the Six Nations.

Gallagher Premiership

P

W

L

D

PF

PA

PD

BP T

BP-7

BP

Total

1

Bath

2

2

0

0

10

2

Saracens

1

1

0

0

5

3

Bristol

1

1

0

0

5

4

Sale

2

1

1

0

5

5

Exeter Chiefs

1

0

0

1

3

6

Northampton

1

0

0

1

3

7

Harlequins

1

0

1

0

1

8

Leicester

1

0

1

0

1

9

Gloucester

1

0

1

0

0

10

Newcastle

1

0

1

0

0

“For the first try he collected the ball off the floor, shrugged off the defender and that one-handed pass was a pretty good get-away.

“It was an excellent finish by Henry (Arundell), so I’m very pleased with that. It’s just great to have Ollie back. He carried well, defended well. It was a good performance by him – and a good performance by all.”

One worry for Van Graan however was that injuries to Charlie Ewels (knee), Quinn Rouz (both knees) and Ted Hill (ankle), who had moved up to the second row, leaves him short of manpower in the tight five.

“It’s just next man up,” said Van Graan who namechecked Ewan Richards.

“Look at the PREM last weekend. There have been some big trauma injuries. It’s which team deals with it the best. We’ll make sure we look after them. That’s what we’ve been doing for the last three years.”

Sale director of rugby Alex Sanderson said: “We’re going to look back at that match and we couldn’t be more frustrated. There are things at this level that you’ve just got to get right. You’ve got to win your own ball.

“But there’ll be aspects of our defence and we’ll look back and be really proud of, like how well we did to stick in that game.

“We had the team there that could have done something tonight. But you have to back yourselves don’t you. The lads are very frustrated. We need to learn the lessons tonight.

“We knew it was going to be an 80-minute game. On the back of last year they scored more tries than anyone else in the third and fourth quarters than any other team. We had to push them there – and we did that for 75 minutes.

“They’re stronger again this year probably with Arundell, and Carreras to come back in. I see them having the ability and taking teams to the death as they did with Quins last week.

“We want to be competing and pushing again for semi-finals and finals. That’s the frustrating thing – we’re not a million miles off. The big rocks are there. It’s the small things that made the difference tonight.”