Morahan calls for mental resilience

BRISTOL face a potential banana skin today and winger Luke Morahan knows improving their defence is key.

Bristol’s record of 37 tries conceded is inferior to those of Jersey (30), Ealing (33) and Hartpury (36) and Morahan said: “We need to develop that mental resilience not to concede tries in the last 20 minutes of games that have essentially been won.

“You cannot afford to switch off at the highest level and one of our goals each week now is for our bench to make an impact when they come on.

“We’re not up yet and teams like Bedford and Ealing will come at us, so we can’t be conceding two or three tries late in games like we have been.”

All Black Steven Luatua returns to the starting line-up at No.8 and Bristol include Premiership record try scorer Tom Varndell in the backline against his former club, while Alapati Leiua switches to the midfield.

In the pack, Luatua links up with Sam Jeffries and Dan Thomas in the back row, while Soane Tonga’uiha is selected at loosehead.

Head coach Pat Lam said: “The main thing is that we stay connected and work as a team. All of our attack is teamwork and our defence has to be teamwork as well. Trust has been a key focus for us this season as well – staying in system and trusting your mate to do the job.”

England U20s prop Ollie Dawe is listed among the replacements and could make his first Championship outing of the season.

Bedford, currently fourth in the table, make three changes to the side that beat Nottigham last week , with Tom Lindsay and Ben Cooper returning to the front row while Will Carrick-Smith comes into the second row.