By Duncan Wood
September 13 2002

Brendon Daniel was kind enough this week to take time out from training and answer a few questions about his own personal situation at Bristol and looked ahead to the Northampton game on Sunday.

So, from a personal point of view, how do you feel that the last couple of games have gone?

Well, not too bad. It's a little difficult at the moment as we're trying to get all our patterns together and I'm out on the wing so there's a few sets of hands involved before I get the ball. But I'm encouraged about the way we're going about things at the moment.

It must be good to get a decent run in the team?

Yeah. It's been nice to start the first two games and hopefully I'll be there for the third but you never know as there's a lot of good players in the team. Nothing's guaranteed.

You signed a one year contract in the summer. Are you hoping to do enough this season to clinch a longer deal and stay at Bristol?

That's exactly it. I've signed for a year but there is a view for signing for longer.

Saracens is one of your former clubs. How much does it hurt to lose to a former club as Bristol did in week 1?

It's never nice losing to anyone but I especially didn't enjoy losing to Saracens. It's my old club but it's one of those things that you have to go through. You win some and you lose some.

What are your personal goals for this season?

I'd like to play well enough to forge a place for myself in the side. So I do manage to get that place, I'd like to score a few tries. I don't like to put numbers on things but if I have a season where I score 10 tries then I'll be very happy. That'd mean I was probably getting a few starts as well!

Without giving too much away, what have you been working on in preparation for the Saints game?

Just what we work on every week, really. To have strong set pieces and working around the breakdown and how we negotiate that in terms of clearing the ball. Basically the forwards and backs combining so that we get the cleanest possible ball to work with.

Assuming that you play at 14 on Sunday, you could be facing Oriol Ripol. How much do you know about him?

Well, unfortunately, I know quite a but about him! In the first half of last season, I was at Coventry so I did see him play once when I played against Rotherham. He was very good and he seems even better now that he's got good players around him. Because he's Spanish and he's a new name coming into the league people are going to talk about him. Fair play, but I'm not too concerned. I've played against higher profile wingers than him! That's not to say that he's not good but you're always up against good wingers. When you play London Irish, you have to face Pieter Roussow. Northampton have got Bruce Reihana turning up shortly.

Do you tend to do much homework on your opposite number or do you focus on your own game?

Yeah we do. We have a breakdown sheet of players by position and as a group we fill in the blanks because there are a lot of players moving from club to club. We compare notes for every game.

Are you feeling good about Sunday? Is morale good?

It's good. I've got my fingers crossed that my name gets called out and I'm starting. If not, then I hope the team go well anyway.