Johann van Graan delighted as Bath land final blow in ‘heavyweight boxing fight’

Bath head of rugby Johann van Graan has expressed his delight at his side’s dramatic late victory over Harlequins, stating it was just about “getting the job done” at the Stoop.

The West Country outfit were down 24-14 heading into the final quarter, but a late double from South African props Thomas du Toit and Francois van Wyk secured their fourth win of the Premiership season.

“Heavyweight boxing fight”

It was a game full of ups and downs for the visitors, with Tom Dunn and Guy Pepper both being sent to the sin-bin at various stages. Despite this, Van Graan believes his side were the “stronger team” in these periods, which ultimately got them over the line in this “heavyweight boxing fight”.

“It’s an 80-minute game,” said the Bath boss. “We spoke in the week about this being a heavyweight boxing fight. Two very good teams and it was a very physical game with big collisions. I’m very thrilled with this one.”

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He added: “The biggest thing for me was that when we were down to 14 players twice, we were actually the stronger team. The other 14 guys filled the space that had been left.”

Hard work wins games

The game was arguably Bath’s biggest challenge to date in the early stages of the season, as Harlequins piled on the pressure for large parts of the game.

Coming under that much fire and still coming away with the win will send a serious statement out to the rest of the league, and boss Van Graan was full of praise for his charges for how they overcame this onslaught.

“We took an enormous amount of pressure between minutes 40 to 60 and then we got a foothold in the game,” he said. “Our scrum went very well and once we were five or six yards from the try-line we created havoc.”

He added: “We have worked hard on our execution under pressure and it showed here. It was a really good team try for our fourth in the corner.

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“It’s important through the season to win big games away from home and that’s three on the bounce from us now.”

He also revealed they faced some serious challenges throughout the week, but he said today was all “about getting the job done”.

“We had a bit of sickness in camp just before the game. One or two players were affected, but it wasn’t a big drama in terms of the whole group,” Van Graan said.

“Once we got to the end of the warm-up I looked at them and they nodded and were ready to go. They performed really well. It was just about getting the job done.”

Bath now turn their attention to a crucial clash with Sale Sharks, who will be keen to prove a point after their heavy 47-17 defeat to Northampton on Friday.

READ MORE: Bath secure dramatic victory over Harlequins with try at the death