By Slick
January 19 2006

Richard Hill's Mid Season Presentation - BRISTrust Meeting 18/1/06. Once again Richard delivered an honest and forthright assessment of the season to date. Here’s a summary of the salient points. I’ve resisted the temptation to quote the numerous references to “them-down-the-road” and their lacks of tries. Suffice to say that Richard’s quote above was the result of hearing the laughably low number of touchdowns from their top try scorer last year!

Players

“Everyone should be frightened in certain situations,
it’s about how you deal with it.”
Confidence has grown as the season has progressed. Even experienced players like DC and Hilts worried that, after a period away from the Prem, other teams would have new tricks. The introduction of Ronnie has lifted them both - “he starts psyching them up from Tuesday!” Together with Ronnie, Richard identifies Matt Salter as the most influential player of the season so far. Salts had to contend with concerns about whether he would retain his place in the side, together with captaincy responsibilities and his own form. Shaun Perry was worried at the beginning of the season, he’d never really done any weightlifting and struggled with a new diet and fitness levels. Whilst he’s more than happy with Shaun’s development, Richard finds it “quite frightening, because with proper preparation he could be one helluva player” Following his selection for England A, Shaun will not miss any Bristol games, as there are no clashes.


The squad is in 2 distinct groups, 1st team squad of 30 and 2nd team squad including Academy players of around 26. Keeps players developing, not simply holding tackle bags. Training tasks and approaches are varied, with periods of time in the gym, trips away etc. A French coach visits to look at tactics for next year. Filton College is available for times when the weather makes training outdoors difficult.


Individual players will be given distinct targets, for instance Joe was asked to do a specific job to stop Chabal against Sale and this approach will be adopted in future games, starting with Worcester and in particular Craig Gillies in the lineout.

Injuries

Ross Blake has had 2 operations on his chestbone, he was scanned on Monday and results will be “make or break” for him.
Olly Hodge will have an operation on his hip after the Narbonne game and be out for the rest of the season.
Roy Winter’s knee ligament will keep him out for around another month, as will Sam Cox with his broken his toe.


Premiership Targets

The season has been divided into 3 blocks of 7 games, with the final game away at Leicester omitted (don’t think any of us could stand the tension of going to Welford Road needing to win!). Each 7 games need to yield 13 points to achieve a target for survival. Things so far have exceeded expectations, but there is a “worst-case scenario” which Richard keeps in his back pocket and hopefully will not be called upon. So far this season we have 14 from the first 7 and 10 from the next 7, with Worcester (H) and Leeds (A) to come. These 2 games are being treated with a cup-tie mentality, win both of them and we would be very confident of staying up. Any other objectives, such as qualification for the Heineken Cup, will be left until a point at which Premiership survival is assured.