Johann Van Graan, The Current Bath Boss, Has Shared His Most Unforgettable Rugby Memory, And It’S A Real Game-Changer. This 43-Year-Old Coach Has Had Quite The Journey, From South Africa To Ireland And Now In The UK, Where He’S Making Waves In The Gallagher Premiership At The Rec. But It All Started Back In 2003 When He Began His Coaching Career At The Bulls. Fast Forward To 2010, And Van Graan Was Part Of Something Truly Extraordinary – Winning The Super Rugby Title With The Bulls.
Now, Winning The Title Itself Wasn’T The Big Deal; The Bulls Had Already Been Champions In 2007 And 2009. What Made This Win So Special Was The Location – Soweto, A Place Where It Was Once Unimaginable For Them To Play. Van Graan Recalls The Moment Vividly, “The Number One Moment Is At The Bulls. We Went On To Do Some Pretty Amazing Stuff And I Was Part Of An Incredible Group Of People. In 2002, The Bulls Held The Record For 11 Out Of 11 Super Rugby Losses. I Joined The Next Year… And At That Stage The Bulls To Even Think They Could Win Super Rugby Was Impossible.
We Won It In 2007, Won It Again In 2009. In 2010, The Soccer World Cup Came To South Africa And My Dad Said To The Team At That Stage If We Were In A Super Rugby Semi Or Final We Would Have To Play Away From Loftus Because Loftus Would Host The Football World Cup Games. The Longer The Season Went On, We Remained In The First Spot And Then We Had To Play The Crusaders In A Home Semi-Final But We Couldn’t Play In Our Stadium. The Bulls Took The Game To Soweto And To Put This Into Perspective – To Take A Formally Known White South African Team Into A Black Community Was Unthinkable A Few Years Before That.
We Went There For A Semi-Final And Beat The Crusaders And Then We Played The Stormers, Another South African Team, In Soweto. That Moment, To See What It Meant To People In South Africa, Was Incredible And We Went On To Beat The Stormers. It United The Country, It Showed People From All Over The World That South Africa Was Ready To Host The Soccer World Cup And Something Like A Month Later, Shakira Came And Opened The World Cup In That Stadium And The World Cup Happened In South Africa.
That Was Such A Significant Moment For Me. I Was A Young Boy When South Africa Won The (Rugby) World Cup In 1995 When Mr Mandela Came Onto The Pitch And Lifted The Trophy Together With Francois Pienaar. That Was A Day That I Saw Something Amazing, But I Wasn’t Part Of It But 2010, In Terms Of Being Part Of Something Amazing And Seeing What It Could Do To Others, It Was Incredible.
The Bit I Want To Say Is There Were So Many People Involved From Commercial Companies, From Sponsors, That A Lot Of People Said This Couldn’t Be Done But Everybody Pulled In The Same Direction And Because Of Rugby We Made A Difference. That Is The Number One Memory, The Two Weeks In 2010 In Super Rugby In Orlando Stadium In South Africa.”