By Ian Todd
August 24 2012

The now traditional preseason talk heralds the countdown to the new season, with the first game just a week away against a physical Agen side. Liam Middleton and Steve Gorvett showed up to give presentations and take questions from the audience. And to the chap who left me his two strips of raffle tickets, they didn't win!

We kicked off with a brief mention of the Trust’s 24 hour kayaking extravaganza that raised £4750. If it is possible for a bear to have a facial expression then Brizzly looked very nervous in his kayak, even though he wasn’t allowed away from the side due to his top-heavy nature.

Liam Middleton then presented some of his ideas about Bristol. Reiterating his ‘Bristol Fashion’ statement from last year, he expanded some areas. For example a primary purpose is for Bristol Rugby to develop Bristol players via the academy. Next up is that Bristol Fashion aims to win! Also we draw on the history and heritage of the club and city, with a culture of continuous progression. But it’s more than just about on the pitch and embraces the culture of the club and how players and staff conduct themselves.

He then spoke of how we scored 92 tries in 30 games last season, with a 101 average completed game passes. If you compare this with ‘Quins who had an average of 117 this shows us to be well up with our competition, particularly as clubs like Newcastle and Wasps were down in the low 80’s.

He then outlined the squad, which you can see on the offy, so I’m not repeating it here! But he went on to talk about some of our recruits. Bruce Douglas can play either side of the scrum but is primarily a TH. Kyle Traynor is tremendously mobile and very strong, as is George Biagi who is a No. 5 lock. James Grindall (who still looks great, if you saw any of his performances for Tigers after he signed for us!) has been very influential in preseason and is a great help to less experienced players. Adrian Jarvis has returned to us a much improved player, Bryan Rennie is a great line-breaker with excellent speed and power in the first 10 metres or so. Michael Tagicakibau will join us on Monday for training and Saracens were sad to see him leave, he can operate at wing, full-back and centre and if we are opting for a running, counter-attacking game with limited kicking we may see him used in the full-back position. David McIlwaine is a fine open-field runner and turned up for pre-season in absolutely top condition.

Which was interesting because one of the aims in pre-season has been athletic excellence, so well done David!. Another priority area has been handling and game conditioning. This leads into the pre-season games which will have a 30 man party and apparently the Munster game will be against a full-strength side, so should be interesting.

We are targeting the first six games to get off to a good start in the new play-off structure, remembering that even last season third and fourth weren’t settled until the last day of the regular season.

Q & As

Q	A
Has Dean Ryan arrived and what will he contribute?	Already spent time with at the club, LM enjoys working with him and likes his style. Already knew him from Hartpury College. He brings a strategic approach and is a ‘sounding board’
Any injuries for the start of the season?	Only Otto who suffered a fractured tibial plateau.
What about you Sharks visit?	A fact finding visit (nothing about a new No. 8!). They were very open, sharing their knowledge. Picked up some good ideas and gained perspective on where Bristol are in team development.
Defence wasn’t mentioned in LM’s talk, who is the defence coach?	LM is the defence coach and we were the best defence in the Championship with least tries conceded and the highest tackle completion rate.
How will the new law variations affect us?	They’re not as extreme as the last ones and should suit our style of play and the 5 second ruck law change needed to be made
We seemed to started last season playing a positive cutting game and that became more defensive at the end of the season. Was that a deliberate decision?	LM disputed that and said we were the highest try scorers in the play-offs. What I would have pointed out was that we did score 26 tries in the play-off, but that includes 14(!) against Doncaster, nine away and 5 at home. If you take these out then it was only 12. Compare this with Pirates who scored 24 (up to the semis). If we take out the tries they scored to against their weakest team (which was in fact us), 7, then they are down to 17. Not sure that the stats entirely back Liam up on this one.
Why did we give away so many penalties?	There was no change in our breakdown approach (where most penalties occur), so not sure where the issue was, if indeed there was one. Did feel we were unfortunate with refereeing in the semi-final.
Jack Tovey – where do we get him in the team?	Jack was one of the two most played last season. This coming season will see him competing with the likes of Rennie, Watkins, Williams and Tagicakibau. He still needs to work on some aspects of his game but will play a big part in the season.

Steve Gorvett looked back to where we were at the start of last season and how we performed better than most expected, leading to the decision to spend money recruiting to raise the quality of the squad. There was no big change with Steve Lansdown coming aboard as owner, he had been involved for 3 or 4 years previously. He believes in a careful and well organised approach to getting Bristol back into the Premiership. Steve also praised the great work of the Foundation.

He favours a first past the past for promotion but feels the top-four playoff is an improvement. The B & I well be a better competition, with prize money, and we’ll be taking it seriously in the group stages to try and get a home quarter final.

London Welsh have made a huge difference to promotion. We spent time, money and effort in complying with the criteria and LW didn’t. They rightly failed the audit and were denied promotion, only to argue that the rules were unfair and have the RFU agree. He’s not sure exactly how the rules will apply next season (my take is that only the PoT rule was affected and that ground capacity issues etc do still exist because existing AP clubs comply with them, as some didn’t with the PoT one). But LW’s promotion was good for the Championship. Lastly, we already have more season ticket sales than last season.

Q & A

Q	A
Is this our last season at the Memorial Ground?	Don’t know. Personal opinion is that we’ll stay as long as Rovers do, but in 2-3 years there will have to be a decision. Planning permission for Sainsbury’s looks likely.
What are the rules for dual registration?	Unlimited on DR signings, with 4 in the squad and 2 loan players. The rules become stricter in the later stages of the season.
Rugby grounds need a proper dead ball area, will we have any input into the pitch design?	Bristol have spoken to Rovers about the issue, but it does increase construction expenses (Although I thought the UWE was to be constructed in line with IRB specs, not that they require much in the way of a dead ball area). He thought we might have more influence if we move in a southward direction!
What happened with Mark Irish?	It was a hard decision made in order to move the team forward. He had been previously contracted for 12 months because negotiations took place in February in the expectation of reaching at least the semis and the club wished to ensure he was contracted and settled. The questioner tried to compare this with how Luke Eves was treated, but I don’t really see that the situations were comparably at all, and neither did SG!