JOHN Brain has vowed that nothing will distract Bristol from their ultimate goal of promotion to the Guinness Premiership as they prepare to head into the British & Irish Cup.

Having claimed bonus-point victories in each of their last three Championship matches, Bristol now face back-to-back British & Irish Cup away games, starting at Neath on Friday.

And while forwards coach Brain has promised that Bristol will take the competition seriously, he says their only priority this term is to win promotion from the Championship.

"I understand the rationale behind this competition – and we support it, because rugby is a professional game," said Brain.

"But the fact is that it would be the least of our priorities – everyone accepts that. We've only got one priority and that is to win the Championship.

"It will be very useful for us to see some of our younger players play. Some guys can maybe stake a case for inclusion in the more meaningful matches, so we will go into it with a positive attitude and look to do as well as we can."

Bristol are likely to rest a number of key men over the coming fortnight, with Jason Spice, Adrian Jarvis and Dan Norton obvious candidates for a night off on Friday.

The trio have started all 11 Championship matches so far this season, with 21-year-old winger Norton having been on the field for every minute of the season to date.

And Brain said: "We will rest some players over the next couple of weeks. We'll have a look at some players who are coming back from injury and at some of our younger players.

"We'll give some game-time to those guys who haven't had very much game-time in the first half of the league season.

"You will see some changes – that will be the rationale behind the selection – but we'll still field a pretty strong team down at Neath on Friday.

"The one positive with having a couple of away games up first in this competition is that when you're assessing players, it's good to see them play in quite hostile environments.

"I've got some experience of going down to Neath – you get a nice welcome down there – and I think we'll find out a lot about some of our younger players over the next two weeks, which will be really instructive."

Bristol's form in their last three Championship matches has been hugely impressive, with Brain and Paul Hull's side scoring 18 tries in that period.

And Brain believes it is now clear for all to see exactly what Bristol are trying to achieve.

"I think our game has definitely come on over the last three matches," he said.

"We've developed our attack and it's easy now to see what we're trying to do, whereas in the first eight matches I don't think it was."