Mark Regan talks chimney pots

Midfield general Perry returns for Bristol

Bristol Rugby head coach Richard Hill has overhauled his half backs as he goes in search of a second Guinness Premiership win against London Irish at the Memorial Stadium on Sunday.

Out go Graeme Beveridge and summer signing Adrian Jarvis and in come Shaun Perry and Ed Barnes at scrum-half and fly-half respectively, with a mandate to whip up the home crowd and help bank four valuable points.

London Irish are second in the Premiership and travel to Bristol on the back of a comfortable 27-14 home win over Saracens.

Hill's change of personnel has been sparked by a desire to attack the visitors, a plan bolstered by the return to fitness of Perry.

Perry was in England's World Cup squad a year ago but has since suffered two long term injuries (shoulder and throat) and makes his first start of the season.

"Shaun Perry starts and Ed Barnes will be at 10, so we'll have a different pair of half-backs," said Hill. "It's always difficult for half-backs, particularly when you're not winning.

"It's been a tough time for Graeme Beveridge and Adrian Jarvis, but they've both done well under the circumstances.

"However, I think this combination of Perry and Barnes looks exciting and will add to our attacking threats and create space for the outside backs."

Perry's return to the starting line-up clearly excites Hill, a former scrum-half himself. And he believes the whole team will feed off the 30-year-old's enthusiasm.

"He makes a difference," said the Bristol boss. "He will demand high standards from everyone around him. If he's playing with you, you have to lift your standards as he does not accept mediocre level of play.

"He's a bit meek and mild sat in front of the camera. He was unusually quiet and sensible. But when he's out there he's full of energy and you just can't stop him."

Bristol will be up against the Exiles' half backs, England players Shane Geraghty and Paul Hodgson, who both groomed their rugby careers in the city.

Fly-half Geraghty attended Colston's and won the Daily Mail Cup with the Stapleton-based school in 2004 before joining London Irish Academy that same year.Hodgson was an Academy player during Bristol's last spell in the Premiership and was first choice scrum-half during Hill's maiden season at the Memorial Stadium in 2003-04.

Meanwhile, Hill has been working hard on Bristol's defence this week. "For some reason this season we've been guilty of giving away soft tries, particularly from first phase where sides haven't had to work hard for them," he added.

"Often we've had lots of pressure for 10 minutes or more, come away with three points or maybe nothing and then conceded a silly score at the other end.

"We've got to embroil London Irish into an arm wrestle, into real combat."If you stand off them and let them have quick ball they'll cut you to shreds."

Bristol fans will be offered free shirt printing this weekend as part of a promotional event, taking place at the Memorial stadium. For the visit of London Irish, Bristol fans will be able to get a number of their choice printed on the back of their replica shirt, while for an additional £5 a name will be added to the shirt, with proceeds going to the Sue Ryder Care charity.

Bristol eye chance to gain ground

Win, lose or draw, Bristol have the chance this weekend to get one up on their biggest rivals in the race to avoid relegation from the Guinness Premiership.

Head coach Richard Hill, has, like the bookies, earmarked Newcastle Falcons as the team most likely to slip below Bristol come the end of the season. So he has set his side the task of matching them point for point.

And Sunday’s opponents London Irish provide a perfect opportunity for Bristol to get ahead as the Falcons took nothing from the Exiles’ trip to the North East this season. So if Hill’s team take anything from this weekend, even just a losing bonus point, they will have gained ground.

“We targeted these two games (Gloucester and London Irish) because (Newcastle) went to Kingsholm and got nothing,” said Hill. “We were hoping to get something from there so that would be a little bit of daylight opening up.

“We’re not suddenly in a relegation battle. We were prepared for that.”

Bristol’s record has, in part, matched that of Newcastle’s this season. Both sides took a losing bonus point at home from Sale and all four points, again at home, from Northampton.

“We’ve got to look at (Newcastle’s) results,” said Hill. “They played London Irish at home last week and they didn’t get a single point. So obviously our incentive playing London Irish at home this week is that we’ve got to get something. If we get anything from this game on Sunday that, in our little mini league table of two puts us just a little nudge ahead. It’s going to be tight, but that’s our incentive.”

The game against Gloucester may not have gone as planned, the club slumping to a 29-10 defeat, but Newcastle fell foul of Worcester 26-11 to remain just three points ahead of Bristol and Hill is confident his squad has what it takes to pull off his plan.

“We had one of those evenings at Kingsholm but that happens,” he said. “It’s happened over the last six years for Bristol where we lose the odd game heavily and we’ve learned not to beat ourselves up about it. We make a couple of points out of it and then draw a line under it.

“The mood of the players is absolutely superb. Normally after a heavy defeat it takes them a few days to get over it. But they were absolutely flying on Tuesday. It was as if we’ve won at the weekend and not lost.

“We try to be as positive as we can be, even after defeats. And you have to be. We’ve won two out of 12 games and you can’t keep punishing people again.

“If the effort’s not there then we’ll probably go back to the old school style of training and they’ll be up and down without a ball and running for three hours and a beasting until they can’t run any more. But that doesn’t happen very often. Even against Gloucester the effort was very good. We only had five days to turn it around and they worked hard in the short time available.

“We scored the try of the game with David Lemi’s effort which we kept about two minutes 15 seconds worth of continuity. If you’re a side that’s not bothering you don’t go through two minutes 15 seconds of patient continuity and then finish off with David Lemi’s try. You can’t fault that.”

London Wasps can help Hill’s plan along on Friday in Newcastle by further clipping the Falcons’ wings in front of the Sky TV cameras. Plan B for Hill of course is the showdown between Bristol and Newcastle on February 13 at the Memorial Stadium, a tie which could shape their season, unless they have created enough daylight to breathe easy, starting by beating London Irish.

Winters: Premiership is a different matter

Roy Winters believes higher stakes and first-choice line-ups will ensure no repeat of Bristol’s EDF Energy Cup defeat to Northampton Saints when the two sides meet in the Guinness Premiership on Sunday.

The Saints saw to their South West visitors 30-17 at Franklin’s Gardens thanks to four tries for the home side and three yellow cards for Bristol. Robert Sidoli, Kevin Maggs and Mark Irish all irked the referee into beckoning them off the field, debateable decisions which handed the Saints the intiative and gave Northampton the chance to, in Winters words, “rip us apart”.

Bristol’s 6ft 6in, 17-stone second-rower is intent on setting Bristol back on track in the Premiership and is confident the EDF Cup defeat to Northampton will have no bearing on Sunday’s encounter.

“It’s the main competition for us really,” he said. “We’re massively looking forward to it. It’s a great opportunity for us to put right what’s not gone well so far in the season, Premiership-wise, so everyone’s itching to get there.

“I don’t think you can read too much into that last game. You can almost say that was more a second string side. There’s a few guys who were playing in that who are playing on Sunday but they’ve worked their way up through the squad. And it was the same for them. They had a very young side.

“Yes your patterns are there and your style of play’s there within both sides but, again, that’s a game we could have won which we didn’t. We’ve now got a home advantage and we’ll do everything we can to get a result.”

Head coach Richard Hill has had more than a month to review Bristol’s play and Winters expects the results to come to the fore against Northampton who lie three places and just six points above them in the Premiership table.

He said: “The last four to five weeks we’ve completely broken our game down, selected moves from certain areas, worked on them very hard. Everyone’s singing off the same hymn sheet. Everyone’s very rested up and now it’s just a case of getting it right at the weekend.

“Line-out wise we’ve tinkered with a few moves to make sure that runs smoothly, then it’s just being in the right place at the right time for the first four or five phases, just so we’re all running the right lines.”

After such a poor start to their Premiership campaign and lying bottom of the Premiership, Hill has called on his players to “save our season” and earmarked two victories from Bristol’s next three games (against Northampton, Gloucester and London Irish) as imperative for survival.

At 32 though Winters has been around long enough to recognise there is still a lot of rugby to play. “It’s still early doors in the season,” he said. “It’s only the sixth Premiership game, 22 in total, so.... And we’re not that far behind the people above us."

Worcester are just four points above Bristol and, remarkably, London Wasps are only one point above that so Hill’s demands, if met, could see Bristol in a much more comfortable position come Christmas.

“We owe it to the supporters and ourselves to get a good result; no-one likes losing,” added Winters. “I’m sure it will be a heated affair at times. We’ve certainly got players within the side who’ve got those firey characters but we’ve got to keep a lid on it to make we’re not down to a numerical disadvantage. Hopefully we keep our cool, they lose a player and that’s to our advantage.”

Winters has earmarked scrum half Ben Foden and the mercurial half back Carlos Spencer for special treatment. He said: “Spencer on his day can either be magic or go into his shell. We’ve got to shut those two players down at half back. If that can be done then we’re in with a shout. Up front it’s going to be a very physical battle as ever. The front five have got to try and get one up on them and just try and get set pieces right.

“They ripped us apart up there just from our loose kicks and bad chases. Hopefully we’ll rectify that.”

Bristol (from): Clarke, Crompton, El-Abd, Grieve, Hobson, Linklater, Regan, Sambucetti, Sidoli, To’oala, Ward-Smith, Winters; T Arscott, Barnes, Beveridge, Brew, Eves, Jarvis, Lemi, Lilo, Perry, Thomas, Turner.

Trollope scoops Manager of the Month

Bristol Rovers coach Paul Trollope has won the Coca-Cola manager of the month award for October and declared the customary curse which accompanies the title has been and gone.

Trollope watched his side overhauled in dramatic fashion against Leicester at the Walkers Stadium on November 1 and suffered no less than three full backs lost to injury.

The three points the Pirates seemed to have won, courtesy of a wonder strike from forward Jo Kuffour, vanished in the final four minutes when Matty Fryatt struck twice to steal the win for Leicester. To compound the horror of Gas fans, players and officials, Aaron Lescott (hip), Joe Jacobson (ribs) and David Pipe (hamstring) all picked up injuries.

But their coach was delighted with his award for the fine run of results in October and believes the Leicester game contained enough bad luck to shake off any curse, real or imagined.

“The curse is gone,” he said. “Two late goals at Leicester mean the curse has gone. We hope that’s the case anyway.

“It’s always an award for everyone at the club. The staff and especially the players who have performed. It’s been a good month and we’d like to repeat it.

“We’ve not started this one well with a defeat at Leicester and we want to bounce back quickly. Trollope, who is now in his fourth season at the club, has won the award once before when he led Bristol Rovers into the League Two play-offs in the 2006/07 campaign which saw them promoted to League One.

“It’s always nice,” he said, “but the points are better than the award. We tweaked the system a bit (during October) and the players have responded very, very well to it.

"The spirit is very good and even in defeat at Leicester we kep the performance level which we’ve had and that was crucial. We know that if we can get there more often than not we will win games.

"We were disappointed to lose at Leicester after a good run but determined to get it going again.”

After some poor results in September Trollope’s men enjoyed four wins and a draw in October from their five league fixtures. The Pirates began the month with victories against Colchester United away (1-0) and Leyton Orient at home (2-1) before sealing an important point away at Huddersfield Town with a 1-1 draw.

Their impressive run continued with back-to-back home wins against Oldham Athletic (2-0) and Southend United (4-2), ensuring Rovers headed into November with the Play Off places firmly in their sights.

Also short-listed for the October award were Danny Wilson of Hartlepool United, Roberto Di Matteo of Milton Keynes Dons and Peterborough United’s Darren Ferguson.

Chris Kamara, chairman of the Coca-Cola Manager of the Month Awards panel, said: “Paul Trollope has taken to management brilliantly since being appointed Bristol Rovers boss just over three years ago.

“His side endured a difficult opening to the season but got back to winning ways in October, remaining unbeaten and picking up thirteen points from a possible fifteen during the month.”

Dave Jones of Cardiff City won the award in the Championship and Lincoln City’s Peter Jackson was given the League Two accolade.

The decision to present the Coca-Cola League One Manager of the Month award was made by the Coca-Cola Awards panel headed by Sky Sports pundit Kamara, former World Cup referee Jack Taylor, on behalf of The Football League, Richard Bevan and Olaf Dixon of the League Managers Association and James Williams, Head of Brand Experience, Coca-Cola Great Britain.

Kuffour out to end Rovers' curse

The FA Cup beckons tomorrow and Jo Kuffour aims to inspire a magical run to echo last season’s heroics - starting by ending Bristol Rovers’ Bournemouth jinx.

Kuffour returns to his old club and is looking forward to putting one over his former colleagues as the Pirates seek to confine to history an appalling run of results against the Cherries.

Rovers, who reached the quarter-finals of last year’s FA Cup, have been drawn against Bournemouth in four out of the last five cup competitions throughout all levels of the club.

The south-coast side knocked the Pirates out of the FA Cup 1-0 in a first-round clash at the Fitness First Stadium in 2003 and took the club to a second-round replay in the 2006/07 competition.

Before Bournemouth’s relegation last season they beat Rovers twice in League One (2-1 at home and 2-0 at the Memorial Stadium) and knocked them out of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy 1-0 at the Mem, a feat they repeated this year on the south coast with a 3-0 margin of victory.

Kuffour intends to change this. “It will be nice to go back and see a load of old friends and hopefully get one over on them,” he said.

“I wasn’t surprised, I knew it was a banker to have happened out of all the teams we could have got. Suprise, suprise, it was Bournemouth.

“They seem to be a bit of a bogey team so hopefully we can put things right on Saturday.”

Bristol Rovers coach Paul Trollope described the 3-0 JPT Cup defeat in September as the worst performance in a long time.

Kuffour had only just signed for Rovers and didn’t travel with the squad but was able to witness the fall out and the subsequent return to form. “I heard Bournemouth did really well,” he said. “But we’ve put a good run together since then.”

His own FA Cup high point was with another former club, Torquay, when they reached the fifth round and took Birmingham City to a replay, a run which reinforced his belief that the FA Cup retains its reputation.

“(The magic) definitely still exists,” he said. “Whoever says it doesn’t can’t be a footballer.”

Bristol Rovers cause has not been helped by the loss of an entire back line to injury in recent games. David Pipe, Danny Coles, Steve Elliott, Aaron Lescott and Joe Jacobson have all been out of action. But coach Paul Trollope, who won the Coca-cola League One manager of the month award yesterday is confident he will not have to resort to the loan market and is hopeful some of the injured contingent will recover in time for the tie against Bournemouth tomorrow.

“We’ve obviously got defensive problems,” said Trollope. “David Pipe will definitely be out, Joe Jacobson looks like he’ll be out, Aaron Lescott might be back, possibly. Danny Coles is still a week or two away.

“Steve Elliott is back in contention after playing an hour in the reserves on Monday and Jeff Hughes returned to training on Tuesday after tightness around his hip flexor but is now fully fit.

“We’ve got enough in the building to cover it. It may mean we’re a little bit thin on the bench but will give some of the youngsters a chance as the cup run did last year.”