Bath Rugby head coach Mike Ford not getting carried away after big Bristol win

Mike Ford says Bath Rugby will not be getting ahead of themselves after they thrashed local rivals Bristol 69-5 in yesterday’s pre-season friendly at The Rec.

Bath laid down a marker for the coming Aviva Premiership campaign with a dominant attacking display, running in 11 tries to the visitors’ one.

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   Bristol were unable to halt a rampant Bath Rugby yesterday. PICTURE: Clare Green

   
   

Seven of those scores came in the second half as Bath ran riot against a side tipped to be one of the favourites for promotion from the Championship this term.

Head coach Ford, however, says the clubs still has plenty of work to do before the competitive action gets under way in September.

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“We are pleased with where we are at the moment. We are not getting carried away with ourselves but I thought the second half was outstanding in terms of our game management,” said Ford.

“We pretty much didn’t give Bristol anything in the second half, and even at 62-5 we were still kicking the ball to space, which we are very pleased with.

“We said at half-time, and we’ve said this all pre-season as it’s been a big focus for us, if we get our fundamentals right – your defence, your kicking game, your discipline, the breakdown – if you get that right, you are going to be tough to beat.

“This year we are going to really focus on that, and with the people we’ve recruited we have extra bits which we didn’t have last year to do really well.

“You saw in the second half that when you get your fundamentals right, that’s what happens.

“Bristol will be disappointed but we just didn’t give them anything. We just kept building the pressure and with that comes points.

“We want the players to make decisions, they’ve got to practise that day in day out.

“Some they’ll get right and some they will get wrong but the more we take ourselves out of the equation, the better this team will play.”

The victory comes fresh off the back of Tuesday night’s pre-season opener against Premiership rivals Newcastle Falcons in Beziers, France, which ended in a 21-21 draw.

The short turnaround between matches prompted Bath to name a different side for each half at The Rec and Ford was pleased with how well his troops responded.

It was not all good news for Bath, however, with summer signing David Sisi suffering a first-half ankle injury which saw him leave the ground on crutches, although Ford does not expect the England Under-20 back-row ace to be out of action for long.

“We thought the Newcastle game was probably a week too earlier for us in terms of actually playing,” said Ford. “We could have done with a full week for this game, that’s why we picked two sides.

“The pack in particular had played 40 minutes and now they’ve got another 40 minutes under their belts.

“That’s what you’re after in pre-season, just to get game time and your timings for hitting rucks and tackles. I think we achieved that today.

“With David it’s not as bad as it looks, it could be a couple of weeks. We’ve been lucky with injuries.”

Bath Rugby head coach Mike Ford not getting carried away after big Bristol win