Van Graan faces late Spencer fitness call as Bath open Champions Cup campaign against Montpellier

Johann van Graan must decide whether to hand Bath captain Ben Spencer his first appearance of the season when the Premiership side host Montpellier at The Rec on Saturday in their Champions Cup opener.

Spencer has not featured for Bath since undergoing shoulder surgery in the summer, with Tom Carr-Smith, Bernard van der Linde and Ieuan Davies covering at scrum-half in his absence. Van der Linde is also currently managing a knock, adding further complexity to van Graan’s selection.

“We’ll make a decision later in the week if we are going to go with Ben; he hasn’t played in a long time but is our captain,” van Graan said.

The selection headache is compounded by the absence of Miles Reid, who suffered a head injury during Bath’s 71-48 defeat at Northampton last weekend — a match that marked his 150th appearance for the club. Reid failed his head injury assessment and faces a mandatory 12-day stand-down.

“He is not available for the weekend. He failed his HIA, so he is on a 12-day stand down, so even for Gloucester, that’s going to be tough and go,” van Graan confirmed. “He was fine after the game. Obviously it was a big day for him, his 150th game. But he is not available.”

With Reid and Sam Underhill both sidelined, England flanker Guy Pepper is set to carry much of the breakdown burden for Bath this weekend. Pepper is eager to go further in the competition than last season, when Bath were eliminated in the semi-finals by Bordeaux.

“We’re very hungry for this competition,” Pepper said. “You saw last year what we did. I think we came off that field pinching ourselves because I think we were in it. At that level it’s fine margins, one or two moments let us down in the game, and as a group I think we knew where we could get to.”

There was at least one positive injury update from van Graan, who confirmed that Louie Hennessey has returned to full training ahead of the European campaign.