New Premiership season: How Johann van Graan has rebuilt Bath over past 18 months
- Published
Scotland fly-half Finn Russell arrived at Bath for training straight after his country exited the World Cup
"Literally everything has changed," Johann van Graan says when asked what things are different at Bath, 15 months after he walked through the door for his first day as the club's director of rugby.
When news that the South African would be taking over was announced in December 2021 Bath were bottom of the Premiership, having yet to win any of their 10 league games that season.
Once a formidable force in English rugby - six-time league winners with a European Champions Cup and Challenge Cup in the trophy room - the past few campaigns have seen Bath struggling in the bottom half of the Premiership table rather than fighting at the top, and they have reached the Premiership semi-finals only once in the past eight years.
Yet this autumn, there is a sense that things are changing and the feelgood factor has returned to the Recreation Ground.
"We started on 11 July the previous year and it's incredible to see all the differences in people, in the facilities - what we've done on the inside in the gym, the auditorium, the medical room, the changing room, the coaches office - and then the way that we play," Van Graan told BBC Radio Bristol.
"We've got a clear way that we want to play the game and we want to move forward, and now we've got the confidence to go after what we want, and that's the main things that have become better."
England and Bath centre Ollie Lawrence was named Premiership player of the season last year
Last season saw Van Graan start bedding in his own methods and personnel. This autumn the South African's mark is visible everywhere.
Signings such as Ollie Lawrence - who won the Premiership player of the year last season - Ted Hill and Alfie Barbeary were brought in last autumn.
The squad been bolstered further this summer by the arrivals of World Cup winner and South Africa international Thomas du Toit and Scotland and British and Irish Lions fly-half Finn Russell - the latter being the marquee signing that has the rugby city buzzing.
The backroom staff has also been entirely overhauled. JP Ferreira followed Van Graan last year from Munster.
But with long-standing figures such as Stuart Hooper and Neal Hatley leaving in the spring, a new contingent have come in this summer - including former Wasps head coach Lee Blackett, former Leicester coach Richard Blaze and notably ex-England and Scotland head coach Andy Robinson, who has returned to the club he guided to European success in 1998.
Former head coach Robinson (centre) has returned to Bath to lead their academy and work as contact coach
A new head of medical services, Rory Murray, has even been brought in to try to counter the rate of injury and re-injury the team has suffered.
"They've brought a new energy, as with all new coaches," said lock Charlie Ewels, who is returning to the squad after missing all of last season with a knee injury.
"The beauty is they've had such a long time to embed what it is they want to do. We've still got lots of growing to do but no-one is in any doubt of the fundamentals of how we want to play and how they want to coach."
'Improving week-on-week'
Evidence that Van Graan's ambitions were starting to come to fruition was visible towards the end of last season.
The team won their final four league fixtures with bonus points, and a 61-29 thrashing of Saracens on the final day saw them edge neighbours Bristol for eighth in the table and a place in the Champions Cup this year.
"What the end of last season shows us is what we've been working on has worked," Van Graan said.
"Last season we said we want to be tough to beat. That's not going to change, we're going to give teams nothing, we want to fight for every inch. Hopefully some of the small margins that we were short in last season, we can put some of them into more wins."
Bath won three of their five fixtures in the Premiership Rugby Cup in the five weeks before the start of the league season
Flanker Hill joined Bath last October, following the collapse of Worcester, and slotted straight into the squad, starting 13 of the 15 games he played in.
"By the end of last season we had a four or five-game period where we had a consistent team out and we were really putting together some good performances, and what you want to see from Bath," Hill said.
"We're just improving week-on-week and hopefully we can continue doing that in the Premiership."
'A group with a lot of potential'
When Van Graan was appointed, he spoke about Bath needing to go on a "journey", and that it would not happen overnight.
A year on, despite all that has changed, he is coy about what the club could achieve this year
Johann van Graan spent five years at Munster before joining Bath in July 2022
"I'm never going to speak about being contenders," Van Graan said.
"There's 10 very good teams in this league, what I saw last season is on certain weekends the bottom two teams won away from home against the top two teams - there's no weak team in this league."
Still, the quiet optimism going into their first Premiership fixture at home to Newcastle on Saturday is palpable.
"There's lots of potential in this group, that's a definite," said Blackett.
"The squad is extremely competitive and the way that we train is competitive," added Ewels.
"Everybody, all 70 players involved in the club, know exactly what a Bath performance looks like and exactly what's expected at the weekend."
Additional reporting by Dan Albutt and Damian Derrick