Johann van Graan taking Munster lessons into English Premiership final

The former Thomond Park boss will lead his Bath side into a title decider with table toppers Northampton Saints at a sold-out Twickenham on Saturday afternoon.

FINAL SHOWDOWN: Bath's head coach Johann van Graan.

If Johann van Graan’s experience as Munster boss has taught him anything ahead of Saturday’s English Premiership final, the Bath head coach will be prepared to expect anything and everything to be thrown at his team and still expect something unexpected.

While the Irish province he led for four and a half seasons heads into a URC quarter-final on Friday evening in a bid for back-to-back titles under his successor and former assistant Graham Rowntree, van Graan will take his Premiership runners-up into a title decider with table toppers Northampton Saints at a sold-out Twickenham on Saturday afternoon as the west country club returns to the English domestic showpiece for the first time since 2015.

Last Saturday’s 31-23 semi-final victory over Sale Sharks on home soil at The Rec was something of a breakthrough event for van Graan, 44, who suffered so much knockout rugby heartache with Munster in his first head coaching position between November 2017 and June 2022. Champions Cup semi-final defeats to Racing 92 in 2018 and Saracens a year later, and three successive Pro14 last-four losses at Leinster tell their own sorry tale before Munster went straight into a league final during the Covid lockdown in 2021 and went down once more to their rivals in blue behind closed doors.

Yet the Aviva Stadium European quarter-final loss on penalty kicks to Toulouse a year later is the one that stood out for the South African when asked on Thursday what he had gleaned from his knockout rugby experiences heading into Bath’s play-off run to this weekend’s final.

Munster followers of a fragile disposition may not want to remember but having held the mighty Toulouse to a 24-24 draw after extra time in front of a red wall of 40,000-plus supporters, only a penalty kick shootout could separate the teams. Toulouse were faultless off the tee with their three kicks from Antoin Dupont, Romain Ntamack and Thomas Ramos but only Joey Carbery managed to slot his as Ben Healy and Conor Murray’s efforts went astray.

“As a coach you use all of your experience that you’ve been through, so from my time with the Bulls, with Super Rugby and the Currie Cup, and the Springboks (as an assistant) with a World Cup quarter-final and a World Cup semi-final, a third/fourth play-off, to Munster, European semi-finals, a URC final, you take small little bits out of all of them.

“I’d say the biggest thing for us a group is stick to our process and the belief we have as a group, and in starting with the playing group and then the coaches and the staff we’ve got full belief in what we are doing. Being process-focused, keep doing the things that have gotten you in a final.

“There’s always valuable lessons. If I take one game from Munster, the (penalty) kick contest against Toulouse, what I’ve learned from that is to be prepared for that moment you’ve got to prepare for every single thing you can think of. The players have used all of the situations throughout the season so we are well prepared for anything that might happen.

“And the beauty about rugby is that then something happens that’s never happened before. We’ve got good leadership on the pitch and I trust our captain and our leadership group on the pitch to make the right decisions under pressure.” 

The Bath head coach will travel to Twickenham with confidence having thumped Northampton Saints 43-12 at the Rec in the final round of the regular season on May 18 to finish level on points at the top of the table. Yet van Graan refused to be bullish during his pre-match media conference and of Saturday’s opponents said: “You don’t get to a Champions Cup semi-final for nothing. They’ve got a very good scrum, they win their lineout ball, they get quick ball and like any team, if they get quick ball they are potent.

“A lot of respect for Phil (Dowson) and what he’s done, starting on his journey as an assistant coach and becoming director of rugby, so a well organised club, that we respect and we get along with very well and looking forward to meeting on Saturday afternoon.”