Johann van Graan hails ‘two world-class number 13s’ as Bath edge Bristol

Bath head of rugby Johann van Graan admitted he breathed a sigh of relief at his side’s narrow 20-19 Gallagher Premiership victory over neighbours Bristol but was just as quick to praise “two world-class number 13s”.

Bath’s England centre Ollie Lawrence took the player of the match award for a hungry, virtuoso display but Fijian-born Virimi Vakatawa was just as impressive in the Bristol back line in front of a capacity crowd at the Recreation Ground.

Asked about Lawrence’s form since returning from the World Cup, van Graan said: “I thought he was excellent. We had a good set-piece base to attack from in the first half. Obviously, we did our homework on them and they did the same to us so both teams found momentum.

“We put Ollie through a few holes and the try straight from the kick-off was a brilliant team effort.”

Van Graan added: “I coached against Vakatawa when I was with South Africa and he with France. Every time I see his name on the opposition team sheet I think: what a quality player!

It's two tries in two minutes for @BathRugby! ?

With Ollie Lawrence in the heart of both tries he finds Cameron Redpath who sees Captain Ben Spencer for the run ?#GallagherPrem pic.twitter.com/8orFsfYV0a

— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) November 17, 2023

“It was a real positive for the Premiership if you look at the quality on both sides and two number 13s. We are not speaking about decisions or 50-50s, we’re talking about two world-class number 13s that had a real go at each other. Both were brilliant tonight.”

On his team’s performance, van Graan added: “We spoke this week about mastering the basics and in the last three minutes we were really clinical. We had to defend the maul, defend the scrum, win our own ball on the scrum. We had to win a line-out, execute the kick and keep our discipline because one penalty gives it away so it was a real sign of growth to us.

“Last season we lost seven games by one score. We were on the wrong end of it here against Leicester recently with a last-minute decision so I’ll take it as a real sign of growth for us as a group.”

Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam said: “We started really well, scored and then gave possession away. They came at us and had a real purple patch from our own errors and missed tackles and at 17-7 they were on fire. We just had to stop their momentum.

“We then had some clear chances to score points before half-time and we blew those. We spoke about it and said we needed to score next. We had a few chances and finally got over and scored again. It could have gone any way at the end there.”

Lam added: “What I am proud about is that the boys kept fighting and hanging in there. If we do that, it will come. We lost by just one point and you have to ask yourself: did the game plan give us opportunities? We just didn’t take those points.

“You can look at the (refereeing) calls – and Callum (Sheedy) has failed his HIA – but I ask myself: did we have opportunities to win? Yes, we did. All of the last four games, we could have easily won them if we had taken our chances, so we keep working at that.

“There were a lot of positive performances from guys which will stand us in good stead. I know there is doom and gloom outside (the club) about results but we know that they could easily be the other way round. It’s fine margins.

“What I love is that in every game the boys are fighting and showing lots of effort. We have got Sarries (Saracens) next week so we are straight back in. It helps focus us.”

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