{"id":340821,"date":"2025-12-29T10:51:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T10:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/340821\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T10:51:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T10:51:11","slug":"johann-van-graan-provides-early-update-on-injured-england-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/340821\/","title":{"rendered":"Johann van Graan provides early update on injured England star"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Basking in a 41-21 Gallagher PREM victory over champions Bath<\/a> at the Recreation Ground, Northampton<\/a> director of rugby Phil Dowson<\/a> insisted there was never any doubt that they would play \u201cthe Saints\u2019 way\u201d.<\/p>\n

The six-try performance, with Tommy Freeman<\/a> running in a hat-trick, propelled the club to the top of the table.<\/p>\n

Dowson said: \u201cIt was very pleasing against a side of Bath\u2019s quality. To produce a performance like that in Christmas week was just ideal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to come out of the blocks. We want to play. It\u2019s the Saints\u2019 way, however you want to describe that. I thought we did that, particularly in the second half and really went for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had battled hard in the first half and kept them out on a few occasions. In the second half we really got into our stride a bit more.<\/p>\n

\"Team Match Summary \"Team <\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to move the ball regardless of who we\u2019re playing against. We focus almost entirely on ourselves in terms of how we want to play the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you can see that week to week in the consistency of our performance, particularly with different players.<\/p>\n

\u201cBath are a very good side with lots of very good players, but that didn\u2019t have a huge impact on how we were going to attack today. Every victory is a victory for the squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a very connected group and a really good group of lads to buy in, emotionally invested in what we\u2019re trying to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bath head of rugby Johann van Graan was not looking to make excuses for his team\u2019s defeat \u2013 their first at home in the PREM since Bristol<\/a> won at the Rec in October 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were clearly beaten by the better team on the day,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the last 30 minutes, they squeezed us, got penalties and against a side like Northampton, it\u2019s very difficult to keep them out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first half was crazy rugby by both teams. After half-time, we scored to go 21-14 and then the last 30 just wasn\u2019t good enough from our side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Graan added: \u201cLike I said, as a group we win together and we lose together, beaten by the better side on the night.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had some good moments, specifically in the first half. We had two clear-cut opportunities, one metre from their try line and which we didn\u2019t finish.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s never great to lose. But I think what it does show is the quality of the Premiership. Anybody can beat anybody on the day. We\u2019ll go and review it on Monday morning and then move forward again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look across the season, we\u2019re in a very good place, but clearly not good enough tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Graan was unable to provide much detail on an injury to centre Max Ojomoh<\/a>, who was hurt in a collision under the home posts, saying: \u201cNo, I don\u2019t have a clear answer at this stage, but it looks like a calf.<\/p>\n

\u201cI assume he\u2019ll go for a scan and then we\u2019ll know a bit more on Monday or Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey always put their bodies on the line. Collisions like that can go horribly wrong, but let\u2019s see where we\u2019re at early next week.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Basking in a 41-21 Gallagher PREM victory over champions Bath at the Recreation Ground, Northampton director of rugby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-340821","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}