We've got Everest to climb now - Bristol Rugby
Liam Middleton surveyed the damage of Bristol's 45-24 Championship semi-final thrashing at Cornish Pirates – and likened their challenge in Sunday's second leg to climbing Mount Everest.
Bristol, who led 14-0 at the Mennaye Field in the early stages yesterday, collapsed in the second half as Pirates took a significant step toward the Championship final.
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Bristol's Jason Harris-Wright is tackled by Grant Pointer - Picture Joe Meredith Photography
Bristol's cause was not aided by injuries to three key forwards, with lock Glen Townson (knee) limping off after nine minutes, prop Jason Hobson (knee) lasting 29 minutes and skipper Iain Grieve injuring his shoulder 14 minutes into the second half.
All three would appear unlikely to face Pirates at the Memorial Stadium on Sunday for a semi-final second leg that has left Middleton and his players requiring little short of a sporting miracle.
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"It's always possible," said the head coach. "It's an Everest to climb, but we've found ourselves in difficult times before during this season and we've come out with the right character.
"There is still 80 minutes of rugby to play and 20-odd points in 80 minutes is achievable – but it will be unbelievably challenging.
"I'm not angry; I don't feel that way – I feel quite philosophical about it. We have to be humble and realise we were beaten today – and there's no point in taking that out on anyone; we were beaten fairly and squarely.
"We know where we need to be better than that and we'll just have to dig in and show some real character on Sunday. Whatever the result of that game is, we need to show pride in our shirts and show character.
"If that progresses us to the final, it will be a phenomenal achievement; if it doesn't, we've had a positive season with a league win and a play-offs win, even if it's maybe not the final step. But we're evolving as a team and I've said that all season."
Bristol came back from 16 points down with 18 minutes to play to beat Pirates 37-33 at the Memorial Stadium in November – but the way in which they capitulated in the final 16 minutes yesterday suggests the task now facing them is a challenge too far.
They conceded four tries in that period – five in total in the second half – as they leaked 40 points in a game for the first time since their 44-6 defeat at Rotherham in October.
And Bristol now face the agonising possibility of missing out on promotion, after topping the Championship in the regular season and the play-off pool stage, for the second time in three seasons.
Middleton, unsurprisingly, is no fan of the Championship's play-off system.
"It goes against the principle and philosophy around league rugby," he said. "We've essentially played two leagues this season – we've played a league season and a play-off season and finished top of both of those.
"When you get to a one-off game and you're hit with a couple of injuries and a bad start, that's what can happen to your game.
"We are fed up with it but it is the system we have to play and unfortunately it lends itself to these kinds of scenarios. Hopefully, the administrators who run the game will look at that and say, 'Is this really the right thing for rugby?'"
Bristol's medical staff will assess the injuries to Townson, Hobson and Grieve today – and Middleton admitted the prognosis for all three is not exactly encouraging.
"The injuries always play a part in the game, because it again halted our ability to get momentum," he said.
"But, at the moment, I can't say what state the guys are in. We'll check with our medical staff. I don't think it's good but I can't say for now what the outcome will be."
Comments
by FromMendip
Tuesday, May 08 2012, 8:54PM
“Throughout the winter when the team was playing well I was one of the few contributors to comment fairly regularly in these posts. Very few others joined in to give their support for the team on here.
One dreadul display and people queue up to comment. That sums up Bristol (the city not the rugby club) for me.
Yes, it was an appalling display yesterday and it's a struggle to comprehend how some of the top players in the Championship could collectively perform like that, expecially after getting off to a dream start.
The coach has been saying for a long time that Cornish Pirates are the best team in the league - to gee up his players I'm sure. It seems he may have overdone it and put the fear of god into his men.
The irony (and this is typical of the unbelievably crass administration of rugby) is that Pirates can't be promoted to the Prem even if they win the play-offs because their ground is too small. The same probably applies to the other semi-finalists, Bedford and London Welsh, though the latter at least did speak some time ago of sharing Brentford FC's ground.”
by mphillips001
Tuesday, May 08 2012, 5:35PM
“Absolutely disgraceful display - same as last year. There was no pride. Good first half, not a bad 20 minutes into second half but then it was like a switch turned off - not good enough.”
by mphillips001
Tuesday, May 08 2012, 5:34PM
“Absolutely disgraceful display - same as last year. There was no pride. Good first half, not a bad 20 minutes into second half but then it was like a switch turned off - not good enough.”
by thatchersgold
Tuesday, May 08 2012, 1:13PM
“seemed to me that they were not playing for the shirt.steve lansdown should lower the price for sundays game if he wants to fill the memorial ground.£5 and kids free.”
by PaulInShire
Tuesday, May 08 2012, 1:04PM
“Bristolians get what they deserve with regard to their sporting teams. What support do they get from a population of about 1 million in the larger urban zone? Attendances of about 25,000 for Bristol City, Bristol Rovers and Bristol rugby combined. Then look at the support these teams get from the council and the local population, when they try to develop their grounds to be anything near to a modern facility.
Anyway, with the optimism, and support, expressed by the contributors to this thread, how can any team in Bristol fail?”
by thatchersgold
Tuesday, May 08 2012, 1:03PM
“pathetic display,didnt look like they were playing for the shirt.steve lansdown should drop the price for sunday if he wants to fill the mem,£5and kids free...”
by Baboonsass
Tuesday, May 08 2012, 10:36AM
“When the one team left in Bristol that could put us back on the sporting map, they go and stuff it up , but do we expect anything else”
by MarkB29
Tuesday, May 08 2012, 9:44AM
“Once again the forwards didn't look up for it, got beaten up at the breakdown and panicked with ball in hand. Not good enough.”
by westywardy
Tuesday, May 08 2012, 9:19AM
“Pathetic 2nd half effort. game over.”