Latest news with #JohannVanGraan
Yahoo
a day ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Russell signs new deal at Premiership champions Bath
Scotland captain and British and Irish Lions fly-half Finn Russell has signed a new deal with Bath until 2028, the newly crowned Premiership champions announced on Thursday. The 32-year-old kicked 13 points and added an impressive interception in Saturday's 23-21 victory over Leicester in the Premiership final at Twickenham. Advertisement The win was Bath's first Premiership title in 29 years and sealed a treble, with the European Challenge Cup and the Premiership Rugby Cup already secured. Russell, who joined Bath in 2023, has made 45 appearances and scored 420 points in all competitions for the club. "I have loved my time here at Bath," said the playmaker, part of the Lions squad for their upcoming tour to Australia. "It's a great team and a great club. We've come a long way over the last couple of years and I am really looking forward to staying here and seeing what the club can achieve." Bath head of rugby Johann van Graan, who has transformed the team side from rock-bottom finishers in 2021/22 to league champions, said: "Finn is one of the world's best 10s, a player who performs in the big moments and more importantly he's an incredible team man and a family man. "He is one of the lads, his training is exceptional, and he's added so much to our group." jw/bsp
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Finn Russell signs new contract at Bath following Premiership final win
British and Irish Lions fly-half Finn Russell has penned a new three-year contract at Bath after helping secure their first Premiership title in 29 years. The Scotland captain kicked 32 points and assisted Max Ojomoh for his try as Bath ground out a tense 23-21 win over Leicester Tigers, avenging Premiership final heartache from the season prior at Twickenham. Advertisement Russell, 32, has been integral to the side since his arrival from Racing 92 in 2023, also helping guide Bath to the European Challenge Cup in a remarkable season of success. "I have loved my time here at Bath," Russell told the club's official website. 'It's a great team and a great club.' "We've come a long way over the last couple of years, and I am really looking forward to staying here and seeing what the club can achieve. "The fans have been outstanding since I got here. We've had some big results at home and that's just our way of giving back to the fans and trying to represent them in the right way." Advertisement Russell has 45 appearances for the club under his belt for Bath, scoring 420 points in that time, including four tries. His new deal means he remains one of the league's best-paid players, reportedly earning £1m a season as Bath's non-salary cap player. Tying their top talent down, Bath head of rugby Johann van Graan is delighted to keep the services of one of the 'world's best' at his disposal. "It's amazing news,' Van Graan said. 'Finn is one of the world's best 10s, a player who performs in the big moments and more importantly he's an incredible team man and a family man. "He is one of the lads, his training is exceptional, and he's added so much to our group. It's great that he'll be staying on at Bath Rugby and continuing his journey with the Blue, Black and White." Russell has joined up with Andy Farrell's Lions squad ahead of their summer's series in Australia, with a pre-tour in Argentina kicking off on Friday.
The Independent
2 days ago
- Sport
- The Independent
Finn Russell signs new contract at Bath following Premiership final win
British and Irish Lions fly-half Finn Russell has penned a new three-year contract at Bath after helping secure their first Premiership title in 29 years. The Scotland captain kicked 32 points and assisted Max Ojomoh for his try as Bath ground out a tense 23-21 win over Leicester Tigers, avenging Premiership final heartache from the season prior at Twickenham. Russell, 32, has been integral to the side since his arrival from Racing 92 in 2023, also helping guide Bath to the European Challenge Cup in a remarkable season of success. "I have loved my time here at Bath," Russell told the club's official website. 'It's a great team and a great club.' "We've come a long way over the last couple of years, and I am really looking forward to staying here and seeing what the club can achieve. "The fans have been outstanding since I got here. We've had some big results at home and that's just our way of giving back to the fans and trying to represent them in the right way." Russell has 45 appearances for the club under his belt for Bath, scoring 420 points in that time, including four tries. His new deal means he remains one of the league's best-paid players, reportedly earning £1m a season as Bath's non-salary cap player. Tying their top talent down, Bath head of rugby Johann van Graan is delighted to keep the services of one of the 'world's best' at his disposal. "It's amazing news,' Van Graan said. 'Finn is one of the world's best 10s, a player who performs in the big moments and more importantly he's an incredible team man and a family man. "He is one of the lads, his training is exceptional, and he's added so much to our group. It's great that he'll be staying on at Bath Rugby and continuing his journey with the Blue, Black and White."
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Finn Russell savours Bath win as he looks forward to Lions Test
Had Handré Pollard done his homework he might have known what was coming. For Finn Russell has previous with intercepts when attacking Twickenham's south stand. It was playing that way that he picked off Owen Farrell's pass before streaking clear in the madcap 38-38 draw between England and Scotland in 2019. And he was at it again on Saturday, coming up with the decisive moment in Bath's dogged Premiership final victory over Leicester. On this occasion he did not finish off the try himself – you suspect he probably could have – instead flinging a nonchalant pass inside to the onrushing Max Ojomoh. In a final short on champagne moments, it put the fizz in Bath's performance, extending their lead to 20-7 before a second penalty of the match proved pivotal in ensuring the 29-year wait for a Premiership title was over. Advertisement Listen to him explain his decision to make the pass to Ojomoh – whose father, Steve, was part of the Bath side that last won the title, in 1996 – and you get a pretty good idea of how the coach, Johann van Graan, has been able to end that wait, three years after taking charge of a club that was full of high-quality individuals, less so an emphasis on the collective. Related: Bath's treble win blends yesteryear charm with the recently unthinkable | Michael Aylwin 'He is a young player from Bath, who has only ever been at Bath, he is character and a brilliant player and I think for him scoring that in the final, I would like to think it is a big thing for him,' Russell said. 'He said his dad never scored in the final so he has got one over him there, he just needs to get an England cap now. 'The first time I met [Johann], I chatted to him as a man. He said: 'I know what you do on the pitch, I want to get to know you as a guy.' That is what he is, he wants a team full of good men. Whatever team you go to, you want to win stuff obviously, and I think with the recruitment he had, players and coaches, there was a real excitement from me to have the opportunity to come here.' Advertisement When the final whistle blew after Russell had thumped the ball into the crowd, there were the customary scenes of jubilation but the overriding emotion soon seemed to morph towards a blend of satisfaction and relief. For Bath have long since been favourites for the Premiership title: they had a home semi-final sewn up in mid-May and, having lifted the Premiership Cup and Challenge Cup, they were closing in on an historic treble. That brings expectation but, as Russell says, Bath have developed a winning knack this season. Russell himself has been key to that, relishing the extra dose of pragmatism that he has developed in his two seasons at Bath. He is a different player to the one who won the Pro12 title with Glasgow in 2015 – his last league triumph – and has reaped the rewards. As such he joins up with the British & Irish Lions in Dublin on Monday – after revelling in extended celebrations and a bus parade on Sunday – with a spring in his step. 'When you get to these moments and it is a knockout game it is very different, it is a one-off game so looking forward to the Lions there are three Tests at the end of it, and they are effectively knockout games. You want to win the series, if you don't, that's life. 'It was a tough game [against Leicester] and we weren't at our best but finding a way to win is really important. I am going to celebrate and enjoy this one. It is a special moment, this kind of stuff does not come around often. The last time I won a title like this was 10 years ago and I want to enjoy it, that is important as well.' Advertisement Russell has had to wait almost as long for a Test start with the Lions. In 2017 he was part of the much derided Geography Six, appearing for all of five minutes as a temporary replacement for Dan Biggar against the Hurricanes. Four years later Russell left everyone wondering what might have been, coming off the bench after 10 minutes in the final Test and helping the Lions finally spread their wings after two turgid matches against the Springboks. He has Fin Smith and Marcus Smith for competition this summer but the manner in which he has guided Bath to glory this season is evidence that Russell deserves his shot against Australia. 'When you get to the Lions it is another level of intensity, it is the best of the best from Britain and Ireland,' he said. 'I am looking forward to the challenge, everyone is fighting for Test spots but it is not just getting in the Tests, it is winning them as well. Every training session and every game you play before that counts. 'It is something that has been in the back of my mind since being named in the squad but you have got games to win at Bath, titles to win at Bath, which we have gone on and done. The focus will go on to the Lions and how do I get myself ready for what is coming. When you get there it is the best of the best and you have got to be on it every day training wise and take your chance when it comes.'
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Bath's treble win blends yesteryear charm with the recently unthinkable
At the 29th time of asking, Bath are champions of England once more. At five to five on a sunny afternoon here, Ben Spencer passed to Finn Russell – the married couple, as their coach, Johann van Graan, likes to call them – and Russell kicked it somewhere, anywhere but on the pitch to put an end to decades of pain out west. In 1996, when titles were won the old-fashioned way, the notion it would take so long for Bath, who had just won their sixth in eight years – their 10th cup in 13, and their fourth double – to become champions of England again would have seemed absurd. Only a little more absurd than the notion they wouldwin it would have seemed three years ago, when they finished bottom of the table, spared the indignity of relegation only by the very different way English rugby is organised these days. Advertisement Related: Finn Russell inspires Bath to Premiership title despite late Leicester fightback The most telling difference, though, is that thing about paying players. In the 80s and 90s, Bath secured their pre-eminence, it is widely held, precisely by being ahead of the game, if not by paying their players, by getting them to approach their rugby as if they were. After 1996, when professionalism became a directive for everyone, that special edge was lost. They regained it here. As in 1996, they have topped the table by playing the rugby of the gods, scoring a remarkable five tries a match on average, comfortably more than anyone else in English rugby history. That they still had to win the thing all over again by a knockout system enrages some, just as others accept a showpiece occasion as the ultimate test of would-be champions, not to mention the ultimate requirement of a sport that wants to showcase itself in these commercial times. It turns out this iteration of Bath champions can win it that way too, just as they have twice elsewhere this season, in the Premiership Cup and the Challenge Cup. A treble. If only 1990s Bath had had one of those to play for. Advertisement You do not win anything much in rugby, then or now, without an authoritative pairing at half-back and the old married couple excelled themselves. Not only will fans of try-scoring be pleased about Bath's reward, one Andy Farrell may be heartily encouraged too with the form of the frontrunner for the Lions No 10 shirt. Russell's genius has been an established reality these past 10 years or so, but his ability to orchestrate, to play it cool when the situation demands, has been more in doubt. There is ample evidence now to suggest he has matured, having passed those classic milestones in anyone's life of fatherhood and hitting 30. On Saturday, he ran the game in understated fashion, without forgoing those little flashes. His was the decisive moment, reading his opposite number's pass to perfection. Handré Pollard is more or less the opposite of Russell, his match-winning hardness of temperament procuring him not just one World Cup medal but two, as pivot of those formidable Springboks. How telling, then, that he should shovel on the mantle for this season, at least, to a man far less decorated. With the score 13-7 in Bath's favour after an error-strewn first half, Russell intercepted Pollard's pass and was away from his own half. Freddie Steward tried to run him down. He probably would not have made it, but Russell saw Max Ojomoh inside and threw what would turn out to be the match-winning pass to his centre. Advertisement We thought that we might for once have a final – hell, a match of any kind – concluded in timely fashion. All the more so when Guy Pepper had seemingly scored an outrageous solo try on the hour to open up a 25-7 lead for Bath. We should have known better. The minutest of knock-ons was spotted in the buildup and the try was revoked. Dynamic well and truly shifted. Now, let the spotlight shift to Leicester. They are nothing if not grafters. None more so than dear old Dan Cole. The last match of a long and storied career this was, but only minutes after his arrival he was off to spend the final minutes of his career in the sin-bin. Leicester's indiscipline rivalled Bath's handling errors as decisive factors in a match that failed to ignite until those last minutes. The boos that met Cole's yellow card for turning his shoulder as he tried to charge down Russell's clearance were louder even than the cheers that had greeted his arrival from the bench. Leicester endured two yellow cards, the other for their captain, Julián Montoya, in the first half, but as so often both were simple accidents. Far worthier of yellow was their fellow front-rower Nicky Smith's handling on the deck as Bath seemed set to score late in the first half. That was deliberate; the other two were not. Advertisement But such is the sport these days. Even though Leicester rallied to score their third try with five to go, the excellent Emeka Ilione finishing round the fringes, just as Solomone Kata had a few minutes earlier, all with Cole in the bin, Bath managed to hold out. How different it all seems from the 20th century. And yet how very much the same.
