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.
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