Portsmouth desperate for ‘feelgood factor’
Portsmouth Rugby Club head coach Gareth Richards is targeting a home meeting with Old Cranleighans to bring some of the 'feelgood factor' back to the club.
Portsmouth's London 3 South West struggles continued on Saturday as they were condemned to a heavy 47-7 defeat at highflying Warlingham.
That was a ninth loss in 10 games this season to leave Richards' side languishing second-bottom in the table.
The Portsmouth head coach admitted there is a feeling of the 'wind being taken' out of his squad after such a difficult start to the campaign.
Yet he is eyeing victory over ninth-placed Old Cranleighans this Saturday to provide all connected with the club something to cheer in the lead up to the festive period.
Richards said: ‘At this point, if I’m honest, the points are irrelevant, it’s more of the need for the club to have a feelgood factor.
‘It’s not easy, we’ve played 10 games and lost nine, the whole feeling around the senior club - the wind has been knocked out of you - everything we thought was going to be positive isn’t.
‘We’re fighting every week to remain positive and the only real way of getting that is to win a game.
‘We’re definitely targeting them as games (before Christmas break) we’ve got a chance of getting a result in.’
The meeting with Old Cranleighans, on the back of an impressive home win over Old Georgians, cannot come quick enough for Portsmouth.
Theydidatleastmanage to register some points with 10 minutes left at Warlingham through Gareth Davies' converted try in a 47-7 defeat on another league outing to forget.
Richards added: ‘It was a tough afternoon.
They (Warlingham) were physically dominant over us, as we suspected, they were a big side, strong set-piece, aggressive, we just didn’t really match that level of physicality at any point during the game. When you’re on the back foot like that you’re going to concede points.’