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The bold prediction that Ben Kay has made about the future of Bath
By Liam Heagney
Ben Kay and his fellow rugby pundits at TNT Sports have had it easy this season. There’s nothing worse than having to jazz up a poor on-pitch spectacle to keep viewers tuned in, but the calibre of the entertainment generated by the 2023/24 Gallagher Premiership has been stratospheric.
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“Fans from different countries don’t necessarily agree but we feel we don’t have to big the Premiership up this year,” enthused Kay to RugbyPass with the countdown on towards Saturday’s eagerly anticipated final featuring the success-starved duo, Bath and Northampton.
“It [the action] has done its own work. It has been the most hotly contested with the best quality of rugby we have seen in the Premiership and it’s just a joy to have been there. Part of the role of a commentator is getting the tone right.
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“When you’re a rugby player you analyse stuff in a boring way because are always looking for the mistakes. Your normal chatting style, it feels a bit alien but you have to sort of ham it up a little bit otherwise it sounds really, really boring. But we haven’t had to reach too far to do that because some of the tries have just been out of this world.
“I can’t remember a better Premiership season,” he continued, still chuckling about the level of drama played out across 19 weekends, 18 rounds of regular season fixtures since last October and then a brilliant semi-final adventure at Franklin’s Gardens and The Rec.
“Usually in a World Cup year getting to this stage of the season, you are, ‘C’mon, get the last couple of weeks over with and we can have a bit of a rest’, but I just don’t want it to end. It’s such a good season and two new teams are into the final.
“The baggage that we always talk about in finals, will that team be able to get over the line this time or Saracens have the big players, they have been there before so they are going to be favourites, that’s just gone.
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“We have just got the two teams that have been best all season… the best entertaining, attacking rugby that we have seen for a long time in the Premiership and they are going head to head. It couldn’t be better.
“I was at Northampton on Friday, Bath on Saturday. I have been to those stadiums hundreds of times before. Loved the atmosphere at both of them but I have never experienced atmospheres like that. The weight of expectations amongst the fans is off the charts, hence the sell-out for the final.”
A year ago, you could have strolled up to Twickenham on showpiece day and had your pick of the seats to watch Saracens defeat Sale. Not so this Saturday. Premiership Rugby confirmed on Wednesday that all 82,000 tickets were sold, such has been the demand to attend a finale pitting Bath, a team without a league title since 1996, and Northampton, whose most recent glory was a decade ago.
Kay, who will feature in the coverage of the final on TNT Sports 1 and discovery+, describes the sudden Bath transformation under Johann van Grann as comparable to what happened after Saracens when Brendan Venter was appointed.
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“Bath have been serial under-achievers when you think about when Bruce Craig took over and the obvious resources that he pumped into the club, but to have turned it around so quickly (under van Graan) is quite impressive.
“Even if they don’t win, I could see Bath dominating for the next few years a little bit. There is almost an element of similarities between Saracens when Nigel Wray was bringing in a couple of star names but they were never really up where his investment should have made them and then suddenly they bring in Brendan Venter and everything changes.
"I think he's worth my money!"
Finn Russell reacts to @BathRugby's owner Bruce Craig's comment alongside teammate Ben Spencer ?#GallagherPrem #BTHvSAL pic.twitter.com/uv01mbyBVU
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) June 1, 2024
“They put a structure in place that feeds off the success. If you look at Bath, it’s very similar. They have invested a lot of money but they have brought in Johann van Graan, another South African, a very family club orientated, making them feel like they are doing it together.
“You look at a lot of the other teams and the personnel they are losing next season. Bath aren’t really losing big names. They have got a lot of strength in depth and you could see them going on and being right at the top for the next four or five years at least.”
What impresses Kay most is how van Graan and on-pitch conductor Finn Russell have gelled since the Scottish player’s arrival last October following the Rugby World Cup. “Johann van Graan is one of those coaches who is almost an amateur psychologist. They had so much talent in that back line but they weren’t playing together.
“I know having worked with the likes of Heyneke Meyer who Johann knows very well, it’s the putting in place a very simple structure that everyone can buy into. Steve Borthwick did it when he arrived at Leicester… when you have got a quality squad sometimes it’s simplifying it down, getting a bit of confidence and momentum, and then very quickly you can ramp things up and start to look like world beaters.
“Clearly, Bath have benefited massively from a couple of recent signings. Ollie Lawrence from Worcester was absolute gold dust and then the addition of Finn Russell, we all raised our eyebrows and went, ‘Really, Finn Russell, Johann van Graan, does that mix work?’ But I have been so impressed with Finn.
“We all thought he would come in and it would be the Finn show and it would be all about his little chips to himself and everything. He has just been the best game manager he could have been and added at the right moments to put in some of those miracle things we were expecting from Finn Russell.
“It is the way he has brought the best out of everyone else and almost his calmness has added to that. In previous seasons, when they were finishing near the bottom, there was almost like a panic or they would lose games at the end. He is just the sort of relaxed lad. Pressure doesn’t affect him and maybe that is rubbing off on some of those around him.”
Kay’s praise for Saturday’s finalists cuts both ways as Northampton have been very easy on his eye as well. “Huge kudos, in particular to Sam Vesty who is one of the best coaches in England at the moment. If you look, the Chris Boyd influence is there because I have watched their attack and the big thing about them is how much time they have on the ball with their shoulders square. People don’t want to bite on them.
“The fear of playing against Northampton’s attack assists them because no one wants to jump in and make a tackle because they are so worried about the quality of the skill set, so it buys them more time and they are very comfortable on the ball in terms of knowing I have got to drag that defender to me and drag this defender from outside to create the space for the next part.
“All their skill execution is brilliant. That has come from the opposite way that I was just talking about with Johann. Boyd just let them play. That was their undoing for a couple of years, they were so good at attack but they would get caught out. But then this season, huge credit to Phil Dowson.
“He has pared that (approach) back the last couple of seasons really. The whole pre-season was about putting weight so that they could physically compete as well, so they have come from the opposite angle.
“They have come from a really complicated, all-out attack to paring that back a little. But what it has meant is their skill sets are well used to playing under pressure. They have learned the hard way how to play expansive rugby, so now when they get those opportunities to go they make the right decisions. It’s very difficult to stop them.”
That difficulty is why Kay is tipping Northampton – not Bath – this Saturday to become the fifth different club to win the league in the five seasons. “They are the most confident uncomfortable team at the moment,” he suggested.
On the rampage ?
How good was this last-gasp tackle from @OLawrence1 last weekend? ?#GallagherPrem pic.twitter.com/Cip3t24l97
— Premiership Rugby (@premrugby) June 5, 2024
“They would have preferred to have played Saracens in the semi-final and they would have preferred to play Bath in the final than Sale because Bath play more their style of rugby than Sale do.
“Also with Sale having gone to a final and lost last year, those scars that teams often need and that experience of playing in a big game and not winning and realising what you have got to do next time.
“There is pressure on Northampton to win because with Courtney (Lawes), Lewis Ludlam, and a couple of others leaving, it might be a hard recovery from that. So it just feels to me that they are the team.
“That Leinster performance [Champions Cup semi-final] was massive for them because give them another 10 minutes they could have well won that game. But just going toe-to-toe with one of Europe’s top teams in a big knockout game like that has given them that experience. It’s just a gut feeling. Where Bath sort of feel a little bit more like they have come up in the final stages, Northampton have been sat there all season.”
Back to how we started, what a gem of a competition the Premiership has been. “We want a bit of variation and it’s absolutely brilliant,” agreed Kay. “One of the things about Premiership rugby is Chris Boyd spoke about this a lot, it’s totally alien to come to a league where everyone plays different styles. Where he came from in New Zealand, they all play the same way in Super Rugby.
“What’s great is we have had Leicester win it playing a limited game plan when (Steve) Borthwick was in charge. We have Saracens with what they do. Exeter with what they do. Harlequins. They are all different styles that have come to the fore which means it’s not a boring league.
“But this year and why the final is so exciting is the game has shifted. Defence no longer wins you championships which is great and we are seeing two of the most deadly attacks that we have seen ever in the Premiership battling it out in the final.”
- Watch Northampton Saints vs Bath Rugby in the Gallagher Premiership final this Saturday, live on TNT Sports 1 and discovery+ from 2pm.
