Van Graan's moment to shine as Bath seek glory

Former Bulls and Springbok assistant coach Johann van Graan has the chance of doing something amazing in the next few weeks, and it all starts with this Friday’s EPCR Challenge Cup final against French side Lyon in Cardiff.

Since leaving his post at Munster, Van Graan has taken English club Bath from the bottom of the Premiership to unbelievable heights and is now close enough to taste the glory that his side could achieve.

They have already won the Premiership Cup, the knockout trophy in English rugby and finished top of the Premiership league. They are favourites to win the English Premiership outright at the end of the season and on Friday have the chance to add another trophy to their arsenal.

This all from a side that, when Van Graan arrived, was in the doldrums and hadn’t won a trophy for over 20 years.

ONE OF THE HARDEST WORKERS IN THE GAME

The success of the Pretoria-born and raised coach is not surprising, as Van Graan is known as one of the hardest working coaches in the sport, and is a student of the game, having started as a ball-boy at Loftus Versfeld before being given his first opportunity as a technical analyst by then Bulls coach Heyneke Meyer.

But this week, we caught up with Van Graan to chat about the final, and found that the nerves surprisingly weren’t really there.

“Finals are awesome,” he smiles. “I find quarterfinals and semifinals a bit more intense in the fact that you are so close and you're yet so far, whereas once you're in the final, it's a once-off, winner takes all.

“You've got to enjoy finals week. At the club, we played in the Prem Cup final in the middle of March on a Sunday afternoon and last season we played in the Premiership final on a Saturday afternoon against Northampton at Twickenham. So, this is the first European final for the club in many years and coming up against a very good Lyon side who won this competition a few years ago.

“There's some very good rugby players in their team and it is great to see Arno Botha doing so well for Lyon. But from a final point of view, I think it's about focusing on yourself and enjoying it. It's such a short turnaround. We played on Saturday early evening in Bath against Leicester and it's only a few days now and then we play on Friday night in Cardiff.”

NO NERVES YET

So how does he stop the nerves from getting in at him ahead of the big game?

“No, I'm pretty calm. Follow our process, start at zero, something that we started here around two years and 11 months ago, this journey. Two of our big principles are to start every week at zero and then you are never too high, never too low.

“The season is so long, rugby is an emotional game, so many things can happen. Red card, yellow card, special player doing something special, big moments, some calls go and some don't. So no, it's back to our process. I'm enjoying the journey with this group, a playing group that works incredibly hard and are hungry. I think that's the one bit, they're hungry and they're tough to beat and they're competitive every single week. We've played just over 35 competitive games across all competitions now this season and in every single one we've fought.

“And as a coach, that's great to see and we've got some very good coaches here and some incredible staff, world-class staff. We'll just keep following our process, whether it's the first game of the season or, in this case, a final in Europe.”

POSSIBILITY OF THREE TROPHIES THIS SEASON

Three trophies in a season is something that is achievable, but it isn’t something that Van Graan wants to think about, at least not now.

“No, obviously it's a reality. This is an opportunity to win our second trophy this season. If we think domestically, the Prem Cup was the first trophy the club won in more than 25 years, I think it was 27 years if I'm not mistaken.

“So, it's been quite a while and the opportunity to win two is a testament to a lot of hard work, a bit of luck and a lot of grace by a lot of people. But we'll be mostly dreaming about it. We've actually got to go and do it on Friday evening. And I think that's one of the things that we're focused on is enjoying the week and make sure we perform on the weekend. And ultimately, what will be, will be.

“So, yeah, it's obviously a reality, but it's not a driver for us, if I can put it that way.”

CRUEL EXIT IN CHAMPIONS CUP

Bath had a cruel exit from the Investec Champions Cup and were drawn in a tough group with French giants La Rochelle, Italian side Benetton, Irish juggernaut Leinster and Clermont Auvergne.

“From a Champions Cup point of view, obviously, when you get to a Champions Cup final, you're definitely one of the two best teams in Europe. Our season started with a game against La Rochelle in the rain at the REC, a game of small margins. And in a season, you've got to make decisions in terms of selection.

“And we went with a totally different team to Benetton and we lost in the last minute of the game with a try. Again, small margins in sport, then we beat Clermont convincingly at the REC and it was all to play for against Leinster in the Aviva, up by 21-19 at halftime, scored three tries. And unfortunately, we conceded a red card with a double yellow, the second being from a scrum.

“Leinster, as we all know, once they get momentum, they're pretty difficult to stop. So across four games, the margins for error are very small. But we looked at the Challenge Cup as a massive positive and we absolutely loved it.

NEW JOURNEYS

“We had to go away to Pau in the south of France. This group of ours haven't won in France yet, so we did that. Then Gloucester beat Montpellier from a quarterfinal point of view. We put 60 on Gloucester in the quarterfinal at the REC on a Sunday afternoon. And then Edinburgh away, as we've seen from a South African context - where the Sharks won in the last play of the game and Bulls came up short - is a very tough place to go.

“I think we played that game really, really well on that plastic pitch of theirs. And now you're in a European final. So obviously from a bigger picture, the Champions Cup, from a personal point of view, it's a competition that I've loved since coming to the Northern Hemisphere.

“I loved our time at Munster in the Champions Cup. It's a different journey for us in the Challenge Cup, but it's a European trophy up for grabs. We've got an opportunity to win a European competition on Friday evening.”

And if Bath’s season goes according to plan, Friday night may be the second trophy that Van Graan and his side lift in their incredible season thus far.