Middleton confident Bristol Rugby will put things right against Moseley
LIAM Middleton is expecting an "emotional response" from his Bristol side tonight when they take on Moseley at the Memorial Stadium.
Bristol crashed to a 50-31 defeat against Leeds at Headingley on Sunday, and their Zimbabwean head coach believes his side have the perfect opportunity to bounce back and put the record straight tonight.
-
"Looking over the tapes of the Leeds game didn't really reflect anything different to what we thought at the time – we know where we went wrong," he said.
"We didn't go wrong technically or tactically, we went wrong mentally, and I don't think we were quite at the races. The competition, as it stands now, doesn't allow any room for leniency or a lack of respect for the opposition. It's not that we showed a lack of respect to Leeds, but maybe we weren't at 100 per cent, and this competition shows you need to be.
Business Cards From Only £10.95 Delivered www.myprint-247.co.uk
View detailsOur heavyweight cards have FREE UV silk coating, FREE next day delivery & VAT included. Choose from 1000's of pre-designed templates or upload your own artwork. Orders dispatched within 24hrs.
Terms: Visit our site for more products: Business Cards, Compliment Slips, Letterheads, Leaflets, Postcards, Posters & much more. All items are free next day delivery. www.myprint-247.co.uk
Contact: 01858 468192
Valid until: Friday, May 31 2013
"Obviously, guys are not happy – we set high standards for ourselves, and we didn't meet those standards. We lost four important league points, and I think there's a general disappointment among the group about the way we conducted ourselves during the game.
"But what's done is done – we've genuinely picked up some lessons about how we approach the game from a physiological perspective, but we've got to put it behind us now and move forward.
"It's not about brushing it under the carpet – it's about saying 'we didn't go right in these areas, and this is what we need to do to make sure it doesn't happen again'."
Bristol lie eighth in the Championship table after four rounds of matches, having won two of their matches – away at Doncaster and at home to Cornish Pirates – and lost against Newcastle and Leeds.
But Middleton is unconcerned about his team's league position, believing it is far too early to read anything into the make-up of the Championship table.
He added: "You can't read too much into the league table after just four games – there's a lot of rugby to be played between now and the end of the season.
"Newcastle and Bedford are likely to be at the top, and we have to chase one of the remaining places, but it's too early to call where our final league position will be.
"There are a lot of changes to our side, with new guys coming in and having to learn new systems, but I'm pretty comfortable where we are right now. Objectively, we've shown a marked improvement in our set-piece results.
"There is probably a perception that we're not as good as we were this time last season, but I don't work in perception – I work in the objective reality of what we see and what we want from the game.
"Moseley will be a brave side. They will be a side that will feel they can come to the Memorial Stadium and win, because they had good results against us last year. They've got some good players – their centre Charlie Hayter is a quality player.
"But this weekend is not about Moseley, it's about Bristol Rugby getting back to its best, and we're going to work hard to achieve that. There has to be an emotional response to our poor performance at Leeds, and the players will do that.
"I'm not looking for anything phenomenal, I'm just looking for the guys to go out and show character, show response, and get the victory."
Bristol: D McIlwaine; R Edwards, L Eves, B Mosses, M Williams; T Roberts, R Tipuna; W Davis, R Lawrence, B Douglas, M Sambucetti, G Townson, I Grieve (capt), R Pennycook, M Eadie. Reps: T Channon, W Thompson, M Lilley, B Glynn, M Mama, J Grindal, M Jones.
Moseley: O Thomas; S Hunt, G King, C Hayter, B Hunt; G Hughes, S Brown; E Waller, A Caves, C Voisey, A Lockley, B Lawrence, N Mason, O Robinson, B Pienaar. Reps: S Wilkes, C Meddick, L Mather, N Burrows, A Day, A Carter, B Robinson.
Comments
by FromMendip
Friday, September 28 2012, 9:33PM
“Another atrocious performance against Moseley this evening.
Bristol is supposed to have signed some Premier-quality players for this season. Goodness knows what would have happened if they'd gone into the Premiership with this shower.
Steve Lansdown must be wishing he'd kept his hand in his pocket. They will be leaving the Championship at the bottom, not the top, if this goes on.”
by FromMendip
Friday, September 28 2012, 7:14PM
“I sometimes worry about Middleton. He says that Bristol are chasing one of two places in the semi finals, conceding that Newcastle and Bedford are near certs for the other two. Now that may be realistic but should a coach be coming out with such comments which may well knock the team's confidence?
He's said that Bristol's problems are mental and that was the case in vital games last season - in football parlance they seemed to lack bottle when the chops were down.
It may not be a coincidence that last season the coach regularly came out with comments about other clubs, saying that they were stronger than Bristol in this or that and sometimes as a complete team.
Yet Bristol was the strongest club over the regular season and only blew it in ten mad minutes in Cornwall. I seem to remember Middleton had told us how strong a team the Pirates were before the game took place with not even a suggestion that Bristol had proved the strongest club over the regular season and ought to be capable of winning over two legs.”