French connection can help Bristol's great escape

Bristol will be plotting their own great escape from the Guinness Premiership drop zone with help from the French national team in the new year.

Les Bleus coaches Emile Ntamack and Didier Retière joined Bristol for training ahead of Sunday's European Challenge Cup rematch with Northampton at the Memorial Stadium.Here to observe Bristol's training methods and consult with the club's management, assistant coach John Brain believes linking up with France could be beneficial.

"I think they found it very worthwhile," he said. "We've been invited back there if we want to look at the way the French national team run and I think that's something we'll take advantage of.

"They wanted to have a look at the environment here and we talked to them about the game as coaches.

"It was a very interesting visit. We shared a few ideas with them. I think they found it useful and so did we."

Brain admitted the club have been honest this week after reviewing last Saturday's 66-3 drubbing at Northampton.Bristol have retained only five players – wing Tom Arscott, centre Luke Eves, prop Mark Irish, second row Dave Attwood, and blindside flanker Matt Salter – from the team that lost at Franklin's Gardens.

Brain added: "We're all in this together but there were quite a few players on that field who let themselves down a bit.

"We've done a little bit of soul searching. We're not planning on getting beat by that margin in the Premiership and we did field what many people would regard as an under-strength team – but we didn't expect to lose by 10 tries to nil."

Bristol return to Premiership action a week today at Worcester, and Brain believes the Memorial Stadium outfit must prioritise league survival above everything else.

"The European Challenge Cup is a very good competition," he said."But you have to be realistic and say that our chances of progressing are probably non-existent so we've just got to make sure we get our game in order.

"We've got to get back to playing well and winning and I expect we'll perform a lot, lot better."