{"id":434396,"date":"2026-01-24T12:11:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T12:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/434396\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T12:11:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T12:11:14","slug":"hopefully-he-has-played-his-way-into-the-england-jersey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/434396\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Hopefully, he has played his way into the England jersey’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bath<\/a> boss Johann van Graan hailed the impact of a star-studded replacements\u2019 bench after his team fought back to beat Gloucester<\/a> 30-26 at Kingsholm.<\/p>\n

The reigning Gallagher Prem champions reclaimed top spot, but not before recovering from a 14-point deficit as fly-half Finn Russell<\/a> kicked two late penalties.<\/p>\n

Van Graan\u2019s reinforcements included five England<\/a> internationals \u2013 Beno Obano<\/a>, Charlie Ewels<\/a>, Guy Pepper<\/a>, Sam Underhill<\/a> and Henry Arundell<\/a> \u2013 in addition to powerhouse South African prop Thomas du Toit.<\/p>\n

And they were able to give Bath sufficient control when it mattered, denying a Gloucester side who matched them 4-4 on tries and made a mockery of their lowly league position.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great game,\u201d Van Graan, who made 11 changes to his starting line-up, told TNT Sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is so good to see Gloucester performing \u2013 they\u2019ve gone through a tough time \u2013 but this is Bath versus Gloucester, an incredible derby.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so proud of my team, they fought to the end. I thought we started well, although our lineout didn\u2019t function in the first half.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we held our nerve in the last 20 minutes, and our bench really made a big impact at the back end of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is new for us that we are champions and everyone is gunning for us. It is all about a squad, but you need to make sure you rotate players at the right time and select them to succeed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we played some good stuff but I don\u2019t think we have delivered an 80-minute performance yet, which is exciting from our side.\u201d<\/p>\n

They kept their composure when pressure was at its most intense, with tries from Louie Hennessey<\/a>, Dan Frost<\/a>, Pepper and Russell denying Gloucester, while Russell also added two conversions in a bonus-point success.<\/p>\n

That took three points ahead of Northampton, who have the opportunity to respond against Sale<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Gloucester went toe to toe with their neighbours as Val Rapava Ruskin, Charlie Atkinson<\/a>, Seb Atkinson and Aso Fasogbon touched down and George Barton<\/a> kicked three conversions, securing two bonus points as they moved at least temporarily above Harlequins<\/a> into eighth place.<\/p>\n

Gloucester rugby director George Skivington said: \u201cI am very proud of the group. We know where our season is at, but showing what we are about is massive right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe players left it all out there. We were in a position to win that game. It is small margins when you are playing top teams like Bath.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought Seb Atkinson was unbelievable. Hopefully, he has played his way into the England jersey (for the Six Nations), and I think that is our best game (of the season) so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will take a lot of positives from it, although it is sore right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bath boss Johann van Graan hailed the impact of a star-studded replacements\u2019 bench after his team fought back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-434396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}