We've got a long way to go-Van Graan

BATH head of rugby Johann van Graan insists his table-topping team “have achieved nothing yet” as they bid to sign off on a rollercoaster year with a statement win.

- JON NEWCOMBE

Last weekend’s 25-17 victory over Harlequins put Bath top of the table at Christmas for only the second time in history. The only previous time was in 2003/04 season when they finished the regular season in first place only to lose to Wasps in the play-off final.

It has been some turnaround considering they were bottom this time last year, but van Graan is not the type of coach to get carried away.

“It’s nice to be top at Christmas but we want to get better week on week and there is such a long way to go for us,” the South African stated. “Being top at Christmas was only a small goal we set ourselves last week but in the grand scheme of things we have achieved nothing yet. We have got better as a group over the last few weeks and we are improving.

“I like to think we are working hard and learning from our mistakes and it is always a lot better to learn from your mistakes when you are winning rather than losing.

“The key thing for us as a group is that we don’t improve in one area and then regress in another area. It is satisfying that our defence has stayed intact and our attack has improved.