Why the man who dreams of succeeding Rassie Erasmus as Springboks coach will have Bath running hot again

Bath start their first campaign for 30 years as English champions tipped to remain kings of the Gallagher PREM due to a South African whose emotional intelligence is “off the charts”.

Johann van Graan is the former Springbok forwards coach who openly admits he would love a crack at the top job when Rassie Erasmus finally has enough. A treble-winning campaign with Bath last season confirms his credentials.

For now, Erasmus is going nowhere. Buoyed by the Boks’ historic win over New Zealand in Wellington less than a fortnight ago, the two-time World Cup winner has eyes on the next prize, namely the Rugby Championship.

Season opener on Friday

Before South Africa face Argentina in Durban on Saturday, Bok fans will have the chance to assess Van Graan when his Bath team go to Harlequins for their league opener on Friday night.

They do so with influential attack coach Lee Blackett lost to England, but former Red Rose prop David Flatman believes with Van Graan still at the helm they remain in the best possible hands.

“I always think the best barometer of a coach in a rugby environment is when you speak to the players off the record, when they’re leaving the ground or outside a coffee shop after training,” says Flatman.

“I live in Bath and I come across Bath players all the time in town. They all say the same thing. ‘Mate, he’s class. He transfers no pressure to the players. There’s no stress, no screaming or shouting’. If they lose a game it’s ‘no problem’. It’s ‘don’t worry. This is what we’re going to do’.

“It’s not too controversial to say that with teams there will always be someone who has a whinge. But at Bath now there is not, there is not anyone whinging. From what I understand the atmosphere there is one of absolute trust.”

On ‘The Big Jim Show’ podcast in July, Van Graan laid bare his ambitions to become Springboks boss in conversation with the former Scotland international.

He said: “That’s something I’d love to do in the future but, as I always say, to become the national coach of South Africa a lot of people have to think you’re good enough and you fit in.

“I’ve spoke about timing. Who knows? That’s not a decision for me, that’s a decision for others. We’ve got some amazing coaches from our country, so many good coaches. If the opportunity ever arises I’d love to do it.

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“For the time being I’m at Bath and a Springbok supporter with my two boys and my little girl and my wife and we go and watch them as much as we can. I still speak to most of the players there that I’ve coached. In my view they’re quite clearly the best team in the world currently.

“It’s amazing to be a Springbok supporter and I’m proudly South African. Who knows in the future. That’s for others to say, not for me to say.”

Rival PREM clubs will hope Blackett’s departure is keenly felt and Bath are unable to recapture the form that also took them to European Challenge Cup and Premiership Cup glory last term.

Flatman admits: “It is going to be interesting to see how they function without Lee, because it appears he goes a long way to bringing the best out of his players and we’ve seen a lot of guys go from strength to strength at Bath.

“I don’t know how much hands-on coaching Johann does but he seems to be one of those bosses who actually wants to employ people who are better than him in certain roles. I really rate that in a boss.

“Of course all bosses say they want to do that but lots of them don’t because they are actually threatened by that and they want to be the king. With Johann, there’s a lot of self-awareness and humility there.

“He’s not hungry for attention, he’s very happy for other people to receive the praise as well as him,” added the TNT Sports pundit. “Perhaps the most striking thing would be that his emotional intelligence is just off the charts, the way he relates to people.

“That doesn’t mean that he’s out on the lash with everybody and he’s everyone’s best mate. Forever, we talk about coaching being one thing, it’s all about man-management. Well, I think his man management is superb.”

Van Graan ended last season by telling his squad “the best is yet to come” and given Bath have since added Santiago Carreras and Henry Arundell that is easy to believe.

He also said ‘the day you stop dreaming is the day you die’. To which Flatman responds, “Lots of people say these things, right? So when I hear someone say that I think, ‘Well, you’ve read a couple of books and memorised some nice quotes’.

“I’ll tell you a story. I went to Bath on a behind-the-scenes media day and Johann did a big presentation. I was in the team meeting and I remember thinking, ‘this is either brilliant, if he actually lives it, or this is someone who has memorised every chapter of 15 self improvement books. Because he had a catchphrase for everything.

“I thought, ‘God, I hope this is real.’ And it turns out it was ALL real.”

Odds-on favourites

British bookmakers have Bath down as odds-on favourites, with Saracens, Northampton and Leicester tipped to complete the play-off quartet.

“In the short term Bath are the obvious dominant force,” Flatman agrees. “There’s all sorts of chat in the papers about them back-loading contracts so at some point you’d imagine they won’t have Finn Russell, Carreras and Ollie Lawrence in the same team. They probably won’t have Will Stuart and Thomas du Toit in the same 23.

“As the team gets better their stock rises, right. As soon as you’re two or three years into winning everything and no-one’s leaving, that’s a red flag. So in the next two years I do think you will see talent dropping away, but right now they’re in the best position out of everybody.”

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