‘No excuses’ as Bath suffer at home
Bath head of rugby Johann van Graan has insisted there will be no excuses following the Blue, Black and White’s 37-20 defeat to Sale Sharks at The Rec.
Sale overcame a ninth-minute red card for prop Nick Schonert to claim their second Gallagher Premiership victory of the season.
Schonert was given his marching orders by referee Christophe Ridley for a high challenge to the head of Bath lock Dave Attwood.
Sale spent ten minutes of the final quarter reduced to 13 after replacement prop Ross Harrison was sin-binned, but Bath failed to make the most of their superior numbers.
The Sharks scored tries from wing Tom O’flaherty, hooker Akker van der Merwe, flanker Tom Curry and Jono Ross.
Fly-half Robert du Preez kicked three penalties and four conversions for a 17-point haul as Sale followed up last weekend’s win against Northampton with another impressive bonus-point triumph.
Winger Joe Cokanasiga and fullback Tom de Glanville scored second-half tries for Bath, with Piers Francis converting both touchdowns and booting two penalties, but it was not nearly enough to overhaul Sale.
Having run Bristol close last weekend, Saturday’s game was a sobering reminder of the scale of the rebuild job van Graan has on his hands having arrived at last season’s Premiership league table basement dwellers in July.
Speaking after the match, he said: “It’s pretty simple; we have to be better. You won’t get any excuses today or throughout the season.
“It’s not possible in a game of rugby going around people without mauling or stopping the maul, without facing a kicking game.
“I learned a lot from individuals and the team today, and like I have said from the start it’s only game two.”
The South African spoke frankly on his side’s shortcomings between the white lines, as they failed to secure a victory in spite of playing the vast majority of the game with an extra man.
He said: “Playing against 14 is almost more difficult than playing against 15.
“The fact is they stayed with the eight forwards and they’re incredibly powerful as you saw in the mauls. Look at their back five on any day, that’s difficult to stop because they played a forward-orientated game.
“We tried to play more but got dominated in the contact. Accuracy was not good enough today, and that happens when you get beat in the collisions.
“It’s game two on our journey so that’s a good lesson, and we’re gonna learn a few more in the year.”
Despite ultimately finishing the game on the losing side, when in reality they should have convincingly won, van Graan insisted there are positives to take from the defeat.
“There was some really good stuff; we had five minutes on the goal line where we got multiple penalties from the scrum. We score there in a different game but unfortunately we didn’t.”
The period the Bath head of rugby speaks of was a near tenminute span in which the host’s scrum was re-arranged and infringed upon by Sale repeatedly as referee Ridley took a lenient stance on the visiting pack’s wrongdoings.
Van Graan took a characteristically lax stance on the controversial set pieces, preferring to take a constructive view.
“It could’ve been a yellow card and a penalty try which would’ve swung the game, so I’ll take that as a positive. The ref made his decision, so we’ll go and review that, but from my side we have to go and improve our performance.
To add insult to injury captain Ben Spencer and Jaco Coetzee both left proceedings early, with a failed HIA and an ankle injury respectively ruling them out of the remaining minutes.
The pair join a hefty injury list, with fitness issues once again plaguing the Blue, Black and White.
“It’s massive, the fact that two starting internationals are gone 10 minutes into the season when as a coach coming in you bank on those players is difficult.
“We have lost Beno [Obano],
Sam [Underhill] and Chris [Cloete] and today we lost Jaco Coetzee, it’s very concerning for me in terms of the power in the pack.”
The South African finished by reiterating the overall message of hope, development and honesty, with Bath still needing to develop as they transition into the van Graan era.
“By no way am I going to make an excuse. I like to think over time, we’ll improve, because you can see where Alex Sanderson has come with Sale in the last year. We will get there, but it’s gonna take time.”