Johann van Graan takes comfort in new ruling after Champions Cup loss

Ultra-cool Bath boss Johann van Graan is staying true to his ‘never too low, never too high’ mantra and refusing to the press the panic button despite his side’s limp start to the Champions Cup campaign.

Bath were beaten 32-14 by Montpellier at The Rec, having failed to score a point in an error-strewn second-half performance, and now face tough back-to-back trips to Cardiff and the Stormers before signing off the pool stages at home to Stade Francais.

When Bath last lost their first game in the Champions Cup in 2024, 24-20 at home to La Rochelle, they failed to make the knockouts and dropped into the Challenge Cup instead, which they ended up winning on a momentous night in Cardiff.

But van Graan believes the chances of them suffering that fate again have been dimished by the fact that bonus points are harder to come by.

Unlike the Gallagher PREM, where four tries are enough to get teams a try bonus point, Champions Cup organisers EPCR have adopted the three tries or more ruling.

The number of teams receiving a try bonus point in the opening halved from 12 under the old system to just six last weekend, and van Graan believes that will lead to a concertinaed effect in the pool tables, with fewer insurmountable gaps between teams.

Other than being disappointed by aspects of his team’s performance, that was one of the South African’s main takeaways from the opening round.

“I think the other bit that was very interesting is the bonus point (rule) and the effect that is going to have,” he said.

“I think on the one hand it is so difficult to get the bonus point, I don’t think many teams will end on 19 or 20 points as happened in previous seasons. So, that might just make the competition a bit tighter.

“With less bonus points being on offer, if you do lose a game like we did, I think that could have a big bearing at the back-end in round four across all the pools.”

Following the loss to Montpellier, Bath are fifth in Pool 4, five points behind the table-topping Bulls.

Under this season’s tournament regulations, the three highest-ranked clubs in each pool automatically qualify for the Round of 16.

The remaining four Round of 16 places go to the four clubs with the highest number of match points across all pools, regardless of which pool they are in

Van Graan added: “The way our pool fell in Round 1, the Bulls got five (points) at home to Stade Francais; we play Stade Francais last. Cardiff lost against Northampton but Northampton didn’t get a bonus point; Montpellier beat us but they didn’t get a bonus point, so in my head, this pool is still very much alive.

“Obviously, that Cardiff game is a big game for us (on 12 December). Should we be good good enough to beat them, all of a sudden that game at Loftus (vs the Bulls on 9 January) in the South African sun becomes a massive game.

“We are still very much excited about it.”