Bath director of rugby Johann van Graan says the final-day Rugby Prem match-ups put the league in a “great place”, with two showdowns set to decide the play-off draw.<\/p>\n
Reigning champions Bath, in second, will take on third-placed Leicester at the Rec, with the winner booking a home semi-final spot, while fourth-placed Exeter and fifth-placed Saracens face off looking to secure the final spot in the post-season.<\/p>\n
“It’s great for the neutral,” said van Graan.<\/p>\n
“It could come down to the final play, and this is why we coach and play. It’s not about pressure, it’s about enjoying the moment.<\/p>\n
“I’m loving it, the players are loving it. The Prem is in such a great place and we should enjoy that because it wasn’t like this a few years ago.”<\/p>\n
Saturday’s game with Leicester pitches Bath against the side they defeated in the Prem Final 12 months ago, though there is no trophy on offer this time around. <\/p>\n
The other prize of a play-off semi-final in front of their own fans could be enough to provide the catalyst for back-to-back titles for the Rec side.<\/p>\n
Over the years, 86% of Prem finalists have played their semi-final at home. <\/p>\n
Prior to 2024, Bath had reached the post-season just once in eight years. Now the defending champions are preparing for a third straight season in the final four.<\/p>\n
“Where you are now was once the goal,” said van Graan.<\/p>\n
“What more could you want for a Saturday afternoon? Whoever wins gets a home semi-final.<\/p>\n
“You want to play at home in front of your own people, so we know the significance of this game [Saturday] and we have the upmost respect for Leicester, but this will just be another game.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bath director of rugby Johann van Graan says the final-day Rugby Prem match-ups put the league in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-715192","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\/715192","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=715192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}