Bath face 'fight' to get in play-offs - Van Graan

Prem champions Bath face "a fight" to get into the play-offs this season, says the club's head of rugby Johann van Graan.

Bath are second in the league table, two points behind Northampton, having won eight of their 10 matches so far this season.

Bristol, Leicester, Exeter and Saracens are behind the reigning champions, with just 11 points separating first and sixth in the table as it stands.

"We're in a good place in the Premiership, but there's six fantastic teams all playing good rugby and it's going to be some fight to get into the play-off race for the back end of the season," Van Graan told BBC Radio Bristol's The Scrum.

Bath ended a 29-year wait for the league title last season and also won the Premiership Rugby Cup and European Challenge Cup in a historic treble-winning campaign.

Van Graan said the focus was very much on backing up their success and retaining the title - something only Saracens (2018 and 2019 and 2015 and 2016) and Leicester (2009 and 2010) have done in the past 20 years.

"We haven't referred once to last season, it's about what we do this season, and the players have been excellent," Van Graan said.

"I want to praise the playing group there, because we didn't stand still."

Bath return to league action at home to Saracens on Friday, 20 March, and have confirmed the retention of more of their players for next season.

England back-row forward Sam Underhill has signed a new two-year deal, following the likes of England prop Will Stuart and fellow prop Vilikesa Sela, hooker Kepueli Tuipulotu, flanker Ted Hill, full-back Tom de Glanville, lock Quinn Roux and scrum-half Sam Carr-Smith.

But Van Graan said the team were not certain to see the return of promising fly-half Ciaran Donoghue this campaign, as well as number eight Jaco Coetzee and academy back Sam Harris.

Coetzee ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament in April last year, while Harris is out with long-term knee and ankle problems.

Donoghue, 23, has similarly not featured at all since injuring his knee during pre-season, which required surgery.

"I wouldn't put a specific timeline on it. Hopefully we see him in a Bath jersey this season, but it's about making sure that when he gets back in the field he doesn't only return to play, he returns to perform," Van Graan said.