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Ultra-cool Bath Boss Johann van Graan is sticking to his ‘never too low, never too high’ mantra and refusing to hit the panic button despite his side’s sluggish start to the Champions Cup.
Bath were beaten 32-14 Montpellier at The Rec, after failing to score a point in an error-strewn second-half performance, and now faces tough back-to-back trips to Cardiff and Stormers before signing off from the pool stages at home to Stade Francais.
When Bath last lost their 2024 Champions Cup opener 24-20 at home to La Rochelle, they failed to make the knockout rounds and were relegated to Challenge Cup instead, which they eventually beat on a momentous night in Cardiff.
But van Graan believes that the chances of them experiencing that fate again are diminished by the fact that bonus points are harder to come by.
Unlike the Gallagher PREM, where four tries are enough to earn teams a try bonus point, Champions Cup organizers EPCR have adopted three or more tries.
The number of teams receiving a bonus point for an opening try was halved from 12 under the old system to just six last weekend, and van Graan believes this will lead to a harmonized effect on the pool tables, with fewer insurmountable differences between teams.
Apart from being disappointed with aspects of his team’s performance, that was one of the South African’s main takeaways from the first round.
“I think the other part that was very interesting was the bonus point (rule) and the effect it was going to have,” he said.
“I think on the one hand it’s so hard to get a bonus point, I don’t think many teams will end up with 19 or 20 points like they have in previous seasons. So it might just make the competition a bit tougher.”
“With fewer bonus points on offer, if you lose a game like we did, I think it could have a big impact at the end of the fourth round in all groups.”
After the defeat against Montpellier, Bath are fifth in Group 4, five points behind the first-placed Bulls.
According to this season’s tournament rules, the top three ranked clubs in each pool automatically qualify for the round of 16.
The remaining four places in the round of 16 go to the four clubs with the highest number of match points in all groups, regardless of which group they are in
Van Graan added: “The way our pool went down in Round 1, Bulls got five (points) at home to Stade Francais; we are playing French Stadium the last one. Cardiff lost to Northampton but Northampton did not get the bonus point; Montpellier beat us but they didn’t get the bonus point, so in my head this pool still lives on.
“Obviously that Cardiff game is a big game for us (December 12). If we’re good enough to beat them, suddenly that game at Loftus (against the Bulls on January 9) in the South African sun becomes a big game.
“We’re still very excited about it.”
