Bath clash could be perfect pick-me-up for hungover Bristol

IN hindsight, losing to a returning and well-drilled Saracens side wasn’t quite as big a surprise as we might have thought. We played into their hands and got suffocated out of the game. Losing to Wasps on Saturday, however, was more shocking both in terms of the scoreboard result and the way the Bears capitulated yet again in a desperate second half.

For the handful of supporters who had made the journey to Coventry, myself included, it was a sobering experience and when the warm up is the most clinical piece of rugby you have seen from your team then you know it’s been another bad day at the office!

You can’t win a game of rugby if you fail to capitalise on virtually every period of pressure that you create and the Bears managed it all - knocking on, turning over possession and giving away numerous penalties when in promising positions. If breakaways, carries and line breaks yield no points then they are simply dreams built on sand.

We looked undercooked and out of form. The rolling maul, such a weapon last year, was so ineffective that we may as well have just taken the points, and some of the execution and decision-making of players at key moments was way off the pace.

They must shoulder a lot of the blame, and I’m sure they will, but what really worried me was the inability of someone to take the game by the scruff of the neck, to stand up and be counted and to change the narrative.

Is this still a hangover from last season’s excruciating semi-final loss or is it just a case of early season ring rustiness?

Either way it has to be sorted quickly and how better to get over the disappointment of the weekend than by welcoming Bath to a rocking Ashton Gate next Friday?

It is the perfect fixture for us to regain control of our destiny and remind people who we are. That said there needs to be changes. I would like to see Fitz Harding or Mitch Eadie be given a chance at No 8 and Harry Randall has to start.

We need to hit them with pace and tempo and remind then who’s the west country boss.

C’mon Bris!

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