Bath to ‘stick to process’ in European cup final

Bath vs. Lyon in the European Challenge Cup final

Where: Cardiff’s Principality Stadium When: Friday, May 23rd, 2019 20:00 BST

As they prepare to face Lyon in the final on Friday, van Graan has urged his Bath players to “keep it simple” and “stick to the process.”

The Premiership leaders are aiming for their first European Cup victory in 12 years as they prepare for their first competition since head coach Van Graan’s arrival in 2022.

After winning the Challenge Cup title in 2008 and placing second in 2003, 2007 and 2014, Bath will now make its fifth appearance in the final.

The first European final that the entire group has participated in, according to Van Graan, is “a special moment for the club.”

I’m looking forward to the moment because that’s what finals are all about, and I’m excited. We’re playing against a good side, and we respect them, so it’s a once-off.

Van Graan said his players’ messages to them have been straightforward and that Bath beat Leicester 43-15 to reach the final.

He advised you to “keep it simple, stick to your process, and continue to do the things that got you in the final.”

With three games left, Bath will go on top of the table, while the Premiership team, which currently leads by 15 points, have been the standard bearers.

After winning the Premiership Rugby Cup in February, they are now on course for a historic treble with the European final.

Van Graan, who over the course of his tenure has left the club as a bottom-of-the-table outfit, asserted that the organization will continue to strive for improvement.

He said, “We have to keep moving forward because if you stand still someone else is moving forward.”

We want to improve, and we have already improved, so we won’t be stopping right away.

We’ll keep trying and coming up with better solutions. Our process must result in performance, according to one of our proverbs. Let’s find a better way to do it if it doesn’t result in performance.

After winning just one of their four pool games, Bath dropped into the second-tier European competition in April, where they had won 2024-25 in the Champions Cup.

They defeated Edinburgh for a spot in the final at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium before sweeping past Pau in the last 16 and beating Gloucester in the quarter-finals.

They square off against French Top 14 side Lyon, who are currently 11th in the league and have lost to Racing 92, Sharks, Ospreys, and Racing 92 in three of their most recent knockout European matches. They also won the Challenge Cup three years ago.

Leo Berdeu, a fly-half playmaker, Sam Matavesi, a Fiji hooker, and Semi Radradra, a former Northampton and Bristol player, make up their lineup.

Van Graan characterized Lyon as a “typical side” that advances to the final.

They have some fantastic broken-field runners, he said, “Good maul, especially their five-man maul, good scrum.”

We respect them for who they are, but we don’t care about our own actions.

It’s nice to get results, he said, but that’s not the point of what we do. We work hard for one another and strive to improve daily, but it’s nice when the results lead to big games and stadium attendance, he said.