European tie about who can 'handle the pressure'

Bath are aiming to win three trophies this season with the European Challenge Cup one of them

The European Challenge Cup quarter-final between Bath and Gloucester will show who can "handle the pressure" best, according to Bath head of rugby Johann van Graan.

The two Premiership sides will go head-to-head in a derby tie for a place in the semi-finals, after beating Pau and Montpellier respectively last weekend.

Bath have the home advantage at the Recreation Ground on Sunday [17:30 BST] as they continue their aim of winning three trophies this season.

"I think the difference between a normal Premiership game and this game is it's knockout. It will be fascinating to see how both teams handle the pressure," Van Graan told BBC Radio Bristol.

"We saw it again in the Champions [Cup] and the Challenge Cup on the weekend, pressure in a knockout game is a funny thing. Sometimes it goes to the last play, sometimes it's a drop-goal, sometimes it's a blowout score.

"The only thing we can control is our performance and what we do in the week."

Bath beat Gloucester 42-26 at the Rec when the two sides met in the Premiership less than three weeks ago, and they came out on top 55-31 in October at Kingsholm in the reverse fixture.

Van Graan said his side "learnt" a lot from the recent victory over the Cherry and Whites and that there is a lot of "respect" between the teams. But the fact they are facing a side they know so well does not change their approach.

"It could have been any team, that hasn't changed our outlook. It's a quarter-final at home in Europe, something this group haven't done before," Van Graan added.

"As I said to the team we keep going for new experiences, winning away in France [against Pau] was the first for this group, and what a fantastic journey we are on and to be part of this competition."

Bath will be without back-row Sam Underhill for the match after he was given a three-week ban following his red card against Pau last week, but they will have fly-half Finn Russell available again after a week's break.

Van Graan praised fly-half Ciaran Donoghue, who was handed his European debut against Pau and left with the player-of-the-match award.

He kicked all seven conversions and sprinted from his own 22 to within five metres to help set up Beno Obano's try, while fellow number 10 Orlando Bailey also returned from injury to feature from the bench.

"Landy's worked his way back to full fitness," Van Graan said.

"He [Donoghue] played really well - good decision-making, good goal-kicking, and his hunger to get the ball, that was really good to see.

"Ciaran was fantastic and Finn is back in training, so we'll make our decision later in the week for how we're going to go."