ANDY Robinson knows how it feels to be turned over by rugby’s underdogs – so he has told his Bristol team to be on their guard and respect Ealing tomorrow.
Bristol’s director of rugby suffered two surprise defeats 20 years apart – as a player with Bath at Waterloo, and as Scotland’s boss at home against Tonga – that will ensure he does not take tomorrow’s trip to London lightly.
Waterloo stunned the rugby nation by beating the all-conquering Bath in the Pilkington Cup in 1992; while Tonga beat Robinson’s Scotland 21-15 in Aberdeen a year ago.
The Tonga defeat proved to be Robinson’s final game in charge of Scotland – and Bristol’s boss is not being tricked by Ealing’s record of nine defeats from their ten GKIPA Championship matches this season.
“We’ll give them full respect for what we believe will be a really tough game for us,” said Robinson.
“I’ve been involved in games – against Tonga with Scotland, and I played for Bath against Waterloo in the cup – and we lost those.
“Those are games where you expect to win but then you don’t, so I’m reminding the players that it’s important for us to really focus on what we do in attack and defence.
“We’ve got to think about having a shut-out in defence, because I think it’s vital that we get that mentality of not allowing the opposition to score tries. But we also have to take the opportunities that are going to be there for us.
“I think, like any game, you give the opposition respect – and we respect Ealing fully.
“We will focus on what we have to do – as they will focus on what they’ve got to do – but we’ve got to play what’s happening in the 80 minutes.
“We can’t play what’s happened previously.”
Ealing lost their first 11 games in all competitions this season, before winning away at Jersey in their most recent Championship game.
They also won last weekend in the British Irish Cup, beating Moseley, so Robinson’s call for respect is much more than lip service or sporting political correctness.
“One of the reasons why we love sport is that the underdogs win on many occasions – and Ealing are the underdogs for this game,” he said.
“But they have shown improvements from the start of the season. They are getting used to the physicality of the games, they are getting used to the tempo of the games, and that is now helping them as they start to get their best team together.”
On the face of it, with Bristol scoring almost four tries a game in the Championship and Ealing shipping close to five a game, the visitors should have too much quality for last season’s National One champions.
But the director of rugby – despite seeing his team win three BI Cup games in a week, and by scores of 62-7, 78-0 and 17-6 – is calling for greater consistency within games.
“When you look at some of the rugby we’ve been playing, we’ve been delighted with a lot of what we’ve been trying to do, in attack and defence,” he said. “But we’ve not been taking enough opportunities in attack and we’ve got to improve that – and we’ve been conceding cheaply.
“I thought against Aberavon, after a good 20 minutes in which we went 35-0 up, we dropped off – but in the second half we regained that momentum. Similarly, to go 17-6 up at Gala last weekend, playing into a fierce wind, we dropped off in the second half.
“So we’ve got to keep sustaining our performance to 80-minute performances – and we’re not doing that at the moment.”
Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/24438943
We must give Ealing respect, says Bristol Rugby"s Andy Robinson
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