Pitch-perfect Bath benefitting from timely stitch-up

Bath’s transformation from Premiership easy-beats to credible challengers over the last two-and-a-bit seasons of rugby has largely been attributed to the calm and collected leadership of Johann van Graan, the skilled coaching team that he has built around him, the big-money investment in Finn Russell and the rather fortuitous acquisition of Worcester duo, Ollie Lawrence and Ted Hill.

The million-pound signing of Scotland star Russell has proved to be money well spent with any doubts over his ability to play in tune with van Graan’s way of thinking dispelled by the fly-half’s performances since he joined the club from Racing 92. Van Graan has to take credit for how Russell has seamlessly integrated into the squad and for recognising that asking him to perform on a bog of a pitch was akin to expecting a Ferrari to purr through the cobbled, congested streets of Bath.

The playing surface at The Rec had long been derided as one of the worst in the Premiership, if not the worst, and had contributed to the likes of Anthony Watson not showing the best versions of themselves in the latter years of their time in a blue, black and white jersey. Conducive to side-stepping it was not. And as this writer witnessed, nothing had improved when the 2023/24 season kicked off at home to Newcastle. During the warm-up, in the corner between the West Stand and the old Sports Centre end, the pitch had cut up badly and required some serious forkwork from the groundstaff before the match kicked off.

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The sixth-wettest July combined with The Rec’s location next to the River Avon had proved too much for the West Country club’s pitch. Conscious that this needed to be rectified to allow Russell to flourish and for their heavyweight pack to be able to scrimmage properly, van Graan went to club owner Bruce Craig with a proposal to stitch artificial fibres into the surface to improve its structural integrity.

It was not a decision to be taken lightly as, along with Harlequins and Northampton, Bath prided themselves on having one of the three purely grass surfaces in the Premiership. Plus it would come at a cost. However, Craig put his hand in his pocket and before the next home league game against Leicester, the ground staff got busy and the work was completed in time.

Whilst the pitch cannot be described as hybrid because artificial fibres only account for 4-5% of the overall surface, it has been a transformational change, a watershed moment if you like. It is hard to imagine last Friday’s opening Champions Cup game against La Rochelle lasting the full 80 minutes had such work not been undertaken. But, instead, it looked in pristine condition despite being hammered by a deluge of rain.

“Since we started this journey in July 2022, that’s one of the better things we have done as a club, to stitch that pitch,” van Graan said.

“The players love to play on it. It doesn’t seem to matter whatever weather conditions come now, it holds up. You can scrum, you can maul, and I think you saw positive rugby by both teams. Even though it was wet and it was difficult to handle the ball, it is not the pitch’s fault. So, yes, I think the pitch is holding out well.

“As the coach, I suggested that we have got to change the pitch because we want to change the quality of rugby, look at the players that we have got in our squad. But what I want to emphasise is that it was a real team effort by everybody to turn that pitch into what it is now.

“Fair play to Bruce, for making that call just over a year ago, it is now in fantastic condition. And a special mention to our grounds team. You need special people to look after our pitches and both the pitches at Farleigh (House) and The Rec are in very good condition.”

While van Graan rates The Rec pitch very highly, the South African declined to put a mark against Bath’s progress this season. But reading between the lines, it would be 7.5 out of 10.

Last Friday’s 24-20 loss at home to La Rochelle was only their second defeat in 11 matches in all competitions, and they sit top of the Gallagher Premiership table and top of Pool D in the Premiership Rugby Cup. However, they head to Treviso this weekend knowing that they need to beat Benetton to have any hope of a home Round of 16 tie in the Champions Cup.

“I am very satisfied with where we are at. But the most important thing to know is there are six months left in the season and 10 games left in this block so there’s loads of rugby left to be played,” he said.

“We set ourselves a goal of starting the season at zero. We got to the final last season, it was important for us as a group to improve.

“I think in the Premiership we have started really well, having played one average half and we believe 13 pretty good ones. The last two halves against Exeter were obviously in very difficult conditions.

“We did some very good things on Friday night and as I have said before, everything is not right when you win and everything is not wrong when you lose.

“We weren’t happy with the fact that we didn’t win the game, we felt we were good enough to beat La Rochelle at home. But as I have said before, we acknowledge that the opposition were one score better than us and we move forward. Seasons ebb and flow.”