Bath 'in a great place' on injury front ahead of quarter-final against Saints

While the black, green and gold had a laundry list of absentees for last Friday's round-of-16 clash with Castres Olympique, Bath had plenty of selection options for their win against Saracens.

And having come through that game unscathed, van Graan is set to again be in an enviable position when it comes to deciding on his team this week.

“We are looking very good," the Bath boss told SomersetLive. "We came through Saturday with just a few bumps and bruises.

"We have some sore bodies because that was some game, and respect to Saracens.

“We are in a great place as a squad.

"It is great to see Will Stuart continuing his rehab (from an Achilles injury), and he is in absolutely phenomenal shape.

"Jaco Coetzee is recovering very well (ACL), so is Ciaran Donoghue, who is back on the field now from a training point of view, but is not available for selection yet.

“A few of the younger lads, Jack Woods and Charlie Griffin have had surgeries, and Sam Harris is working so far to get back, so we are in a great place as a squad.”

Bath have full respect for Saints ahead of this week's clash, with Phil Dowson's men currently top of the Gallagher PREM, one point ahead of van Graan's side.

“It is the Premiership champions playing against the losing side in last season’s European Champions Cup final," van Graan said.

"Northampton are a team we respect so much and have been involved in some big battles in the last few years.

“And what’s at stake if you get through this is you play either the winners of last year’s Champions Cup in Bordeaux or the French champions Toulouse.

“It is important to acknowledge and enjoy these moments because, certainly at this club, they haven’t happened for a long time.”

Saints produced a superb performance at The Rec back in December as their heavily-rotated team won the Gallagher PREM game 41-21.

But van Graan said: “We haven’t spoken about that game at all.

"An amazing thing about this group, you have heard me say it maybe a thousand times, we always start on zero.

"We took our learnings back in December, just after Christmas, they were better than us and we learned from it and moved on to the next week.

"They are a team we respect a lot and are currently playing some fantastic rugby.

"They have some of the best players in the Premiership, they score some fantastic tries and they played in last season’s Champions Cup final in Cardiff against Bordeaux and this is their third quarter-final in a row in this competition.

"So it is a team with some big history in this competition, but all that matters is what happens at 8pm on Friday night.

"It is a knockout game, and it is going to be a great occasion.”