Bath beaten by Northampton in Premiership final but take pride after from performance

Bath head of rugby Johann van Graan summed up a feeling of pride within his squad after a dogged 14-man performance in a narrow defeat by Northampton in the Premiership final.

Saints were 25-21 winners in a thrilling, tense match at Twickenham, with England scrum-half Alex Mitchell scoring the decisive try seven minutes from full-time.

Bath, who had a chance to score with the final play of the game, had come from behind to take a 21-18 lead despite playing 60 minutes with a numerical disadvantage after prop Beno Obano was shown a red card.

“I can’t be prouder of this group,” said Van Graan.

“From a belief point of view, everybody at the club stuck in it until the last play of the game and we as a group have got zero regrets.”

South African Van Graan has taken Bath from a team that finished bottom of the league table to a Premiership final in two years.

The 44-year-old said he was not going to speak about the future yet although Bath – who retain the bulk of their squad under contract having extended deals with a number of key players – will surely start the 2024-25 campaign among title favourites.

“There’s a belief in what we do, in the past 23 months we’ve clearly become a group that know what we’re about,” said Van Graan.