Russell hopes Bath go 'one step further' in final

BBC News

a day ago

Premiership Rugby Grand Final - Bath v LeicesterVenue: Allianz Stadium Twickenham Date: Saturday, 14 June Kick-off: 15:00 BST Coverage: Live commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio Bristol and BBC Radio Leicester; live text on BBC Sport website & app
Bath fly-half Finn Russell said the team are going in the right direction to "achieve something special" ahead of the Premiership final on Saturday against Leicester Tigers.Bath are aiming to win their first league title for 29 years after finishing top of the table by 11 points, while they are also chasing a treble having already clinched domestic and European honours this season.Russell, who joined the club in 2023, was part of the squad that lost to Northampton Saints by four points in last season's final."I came here to win things, as a group we're going in the right direction to hopefully achieve something special here," Russell told BBC Radio Bristol. "One of my goals coming to Bath was to win some stuff, as it is for probably all of the players here. I think we've almost got back to where we wanted to be but hopefully go one step further this year."
The Scotland and British and Irish Lions fly-half went off in the final minutes of Bath's semi-final win against Bristol on Friday night with cramp, but said he has trained normally since then and is ready to "rip in" to the weekend. Russell is used to playing at Twickenham, having won there with Scotland in two of their past three visits during the Six Nations. But with the English fans usually more hostile when he is playing there on international duty, Russell said the prospect of playing in front of a sold out stadium packed with Bath fans, was one he was looking forward to. "I like Twickenham, I think it's a great stadium. This game's been sold out for a while now but it sounds like there'll be a lot of Bath fans there so I'm really looking forward to that," he said. "Usually when I play there it's 70-odd thousand against me. I love big games and playing in front of a sold out Twickenham will be brilliant for us."
'Turning hope into belief' - Spencer
Bath captain Ben Spencer added that the team are a different beast than the one that went into the final 12 months ago, thanks to a culture brought in by head of rugby Johann van Graan and more experience playing in major finals.They sat top of the table since the end of October and claimed silverware in the Premiership Rugby Cup in February and European Challenge Cup last month."Everyone feels different, this group's been through enough now and played in enough big games to know how the week needs to feel and look," Spencer said."It's taken a lot of hard work from the group, that's one huge thing that Johann brought in was turning hope into belief and this group believes now and believes we can win big games."
Bath go into the final as favourites and beat the Tigers comfortably 43-15 when they met in the league four weeks ago. However, Van Graan said that the club will stick to their "process" going into the match, while also highlighting how well his side adapted in last year's final after losing prop Beno Obano to a red card during the first half."Our process is something that's worked well for us so we're going to stick to what we do," Van Graan added."What this playing group has become exceptional at is problem solving on the pitch and as we had in last season's final - and I'm sure it'll happen in this final - you've got to solve problems on the go. That's the sign of a good team."Whatever the final brings we'll adapt."