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'Ability to play four positions very valuable': Bath sign van Velze

(Photo by Andrew Kearns - CameraSport via Getty Images)

New Bath boss Johann van Graan promised on Tuesday in his first interview since taking charge as head of rugby that some new signings were imminent and he has been as good as his word, the club announcing on Wednesday that they have recruited GJ van Velze, the former Worcester skipper.

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A Bath statement read: “GJ van Velze has joined Bath Rugby, adding strong experience and leadership to the club’s pack options.

“A player who can play multiple positions across the back five of the scrum, including No8 and second row, van Velze has over a century of Premiership appearances to his name after spells with Northampton Saints, where he won the Premiership in 2014, and Worcester Warriors.

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“At the latter, he was given the captaincy in his first season, leading the Warriors to promotion back to the Premiership at the first time of asking. He retained his leadership role throughout his seven years at Sixways.

“Prior to his time in England, the 34-year-old twice captained the Blue Bulls junior side to the Vodacom Cup as well as skippering South Africa Academy, South Africa U19s and U20s. Whilst in Pretoria, he became a key member of the Bulls Currie Cup squad before making his Super Rugby debut in 2010.”

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Bath boss van Graan added: “GJ has a great amount of Premiership experience which will prove influential for the squad over the season to come. His leadership ability is a part of his character that I value and his ability to play four positions across the back five is very valuable through a season.”

In his maiden interview in charge at Bath, van Graan had spoken about wanting to tackle the huge injury toll suffered by the club in 2021/22 before his arrival from Munster.  “We have a big injury rate, something we will work very hard to get down. One of the successes of the Premiership structure is you want to have your best players on the pitch.

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“We want to make sure we look after them and condition them to the highest level humanly possible and hopefully that will result in fewer players getting injured. I will have a clearer picture at the back end of next week.”

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AM 39 minutes ago
'Freelancer' Izaia Perese shows the need for true inclusivity in Australian rugby

That's Cron's job though. Australia has had one of the most penalised scrums in international rugby for a long time. Just look at the scrum win loss percentage and scrum penalties. That is your evidence. AA has been the starter during that period. Pretty simple analysis. That Australia has had a poor scrum for a long time is hardly news. If bell and thor are not on the field they are woeful. So you are just plain wrong. They have very little time for the lions so doing the same old things that dont work is not going to get them there.


Ainsley is better than our next best tighthead options and has been playing well at scrum time for Lyon in the most competitive comp in the world. Superstar player? No. But better than the next best options. So that is a good enough guide. The scrummaging in the Prem is pretty good too so there is Sio's proof. Same analysis for him. Certainly better in both cases than Super, where the brumbies had the worst win loss and scrum pen in Super. Who plays there? Ohh yes... And the level of scrummaging in Super is well below the URC, prem and France with the SA teams out.


Nongorr is truly woeful. He's 130kg and gets shoved about. That just should not be happening at that weight for a specialist prop who has always played rugby cf pone with leauge. He has had enough time to develop at 23. You'd be better off with Pone who is at least good around the field for the moment and sending Nongorr on exchange to France or England to see if they can improve him with better coaching as happened with Skelton and Meafou. He isn't going to develop in time in super if he has it at all.


Latu is a better scrummaging hooker than BPA and Nasser. and he's the best aussie player over the ball at ruck time. McReight's super jackling percentage hasnt converted to international level but latu consistently does it at heniken level, which is similar to test level in the big games. With good coaching at La Rochelle he's much improved though still has the odd shocker. He should start the November games.

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