{"id":122703,"date":"2025-05-22T14:08:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T14:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/122703\/"},"modified":"2025-05-22T14:08:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T14:08:08","slug":"challenge-cup-final-bath-pick-will-stuart-over-du-toit-lyon-drop-radradra-planet-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/122703\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenge Cup final: Bath pick Will Stuart over Du Toit, Lyon drop Radradra : Planet Rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bath have made four changes from the team that defeated Leicester Tigers for their Challenge Cup final against Lyon on Friday night.<\/b><\/p>\n

They are split equally between forwards and backs, with two being in the backline and Johann van Graan making as many changes up front.<\/p>\n

At full-back, Tom de Glanville returns to the side and forms a back-three partnership with Joe Cokanasiga and Will Muir, while Max Ojomoh is rewarded for his stunning cameo off the bench against the Tigers.<\/p>\n

Ojomoh was handed the player of the match award in the 43-15 Premiership triumph, despite being on the field for just over half-an-hour, and he starts alongside Will Butt at centre.<\/p>\n

Scotland star Finn Russell<\/a> and England playmaker Ben Spencer, who is also the captain, once again continue at half-back and complete the backline.<\/p>\n

Will Stuart gets the nod over Thomas du Toit<\/p>\n

Up front, Van Graan has made alterations at number eight and tighthead with Miles Reid coming into the back-row to form a loose trio with England duo Sam Underhill and Ted Hill.<\/p>\n

Will Stuart is the final change with the 2025 British and Irish Lions<\/a> tourist being picked ahead of versatile Springboks<\/a> star Thomas du Toit. Stuart packs down alongside Tom Dunn and Beno Obano in an imposing front-row.<\/p>\n

Finally, the Bath boss has opted for a 6-2 split on the bench with Niall Annett, Francois van Wyk, Du Toit, Ross Molony, Guy Pepper and Alfie Barbeary the forward replacements, while Tom Carr-Smith and Ciaran Donoghue cover the backs.<\/p>\n

Ted Hill reveals how Johann van Graan is getting Bath \u2018back on zero\u2019 for treble charge<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

As for Lyon, who currently sit 11th in the Top 14, they have also made a few alterations with Semi Radradra the headline omission.<\/p>\n

The Fiji star started in last week\u2019s loss to Stade Francais but he is absent for the final with Josiah Maraku taking his place alongside Theo Millet at centre.<\/p>\n

The back three remains unchanged, however, as Davit Niniashvili, Vincent Rattez and Ethan Dumortier combine, while at half-back Baptiste Couilloud comes in for Martin Page-Relo.<\/p>\n

In the forward eight, Arno Botha and Dylan Cretin remain in the back-row but they are joined by Beka Saginadze. That means Theo William switches to lock where he combines with Mickael Guillard, with Tomas Lavanini duly dropping out of the squad.<\/p>\n

Only Jermaine Ainsley keeps his place in the front-row as Camille Chat and Jerome Rey come in for Sam Matavesi and Hamza Kaabeche, respectively.<\/p>\n

Kaabeche is on the bench, though, and he is joined by Guillaume Marchand, Irakli Aptsiauri, F\u00e9lix Lambey, Liam Allen and Maxime Gouzou as the forward replacements, while Martin Page-Relo and Martin Meliande cover the backs in a 6-2.<\/p>\n

The teams<\/p>\n

Bath:\u00a0<\/b>15 Tom de Glanville, 14 Joe Cokanasiga, 13 Max Ojomoh, 12 Will Butt, 11 Will Muir, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Ben Spencer (c), 8 Miles Reid, 7 Sam Underhill, 6 Ted Hill, 5 Charlie Ewels, 4 Quinn Roux, 3 Will Stuart, 2 Tom Dunn, 1 Beno Obano
Replacements:<\/strong> 16 Niall Annett, 17 Francois van Wyk, 18 Thomas du Toit, 19 Ross Molony, 20 Guy Pepper, 21 Tom Carr-Smith, 22 Ciaran Donoghue, 23 Alfie Barbeary<\/p>\n

Lyon:\u00a0<\/b>15 Davit Niniashvili, 14 Vincent Rattez, 13 Josiah Maraku, 12 Theo Millet, 11 Ethan Dumortier, 10 L\u00e9o Berdeu, 9 Baptiste Couilloud, 8 Arno Botha, 7 Beka Saginadze, 6 Dylan Cretin, 5 Mickael Guillard, 4 Theo William, 3 Jermaine Ainsley, 2 Camille Chat, 1 J\u00e9r\u00f4me Rey
Replacements:<\/strong> 16 Guillaume Marchand, 17 Hamza Kaabeche, 18 Irakli Aptsiauri, 19 F\u00e9lix Lambey, 20 Liam Allen, 21 Maxime Gouzou, 22 Martin Page-Relo, 23 Martin Meliande<\/p>\n

Date:<\/b> Friday, May 23
Venue:<\/b> Principality Stadium, Cardiff
Kick-off:<\/b> 20:00 BST (19:00 GMT)
Referee:<\/b> Hollie Davidson (Scotland)
Assistant Referees:<\/b> Gianluca Gnecchi (Italy), Eoghan Cross (Ireland)
TMO:<\/b> Mike Adamson (Scotland)<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0<\/b>Schalk Burger claims Johann van Graan \u2018for sure\u2019 in contention to succeed Rassie Erasmus as Springboks great worries about coaching pathways<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bath have made four changes from the team that defeated Leicester Tigers for their Challenge Cup final against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[5012,5013,33921,225,12,4151,54564,79,54565,16,15,54566],"class_list":{"0":"post-122703","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-bath","9":"tag-challenge-cup","10":"tag-finn-russell","11":"tag-home-page","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-rugby","14":"tag-semi-radradra","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-thomas-du-toit","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-will-stuart"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114551881983165146","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}