Director of rugby Neil Bayliss wants Cornish All Blacks to impress

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Cornish All Blacks director of rugby Neil Bayliss hopes his permanent appointment will help motivate his players for the rest of current campaign.

The Launceston club have shown faith in Bayliss, who has been acting into the role since the sacking for former head coach Spike Rainford last month.

Bayliss now hopes the players will want to prove their worth to him in the final two National League Two South games of the season.

The All Blacks are currently third from bottom, in the last of the relegation spots, ahead of this week’s penultimate fixture against London Irish Wold Geese.

Bayliss said: “The boys now know that I’m going to be in charge next season and they have to play for their shirts and impress me in the next two league games.

“There are some good players here and I want to keep the majority of the squad together. I know it will be tough with other clubs sniffing around, as they do at this time of year.”

However, Bayliss wants to focus on this season first and foremost. His side lost to Wild Geese 45-22 earlier in the season.

He said: “London Irish are a team that start the game at a million miles an hour. They chuck the ball about from everywhere and are a very good side.

“I think they are at the wrong end of the table, to be honest. But if they are not three or four scores up in the first 20 minutes, they tend to think there is something wrong.

“Against us, they scored two or three quick tries, their heads were up and they go on from there. But as Taunton proved recently, if you can stop that, you can get into them and turn them over.”

Discipline will also be crucial this weekend. Bayliss said: “Our penalty count when I first took over was double figures every week but we are getting that down now.

“We still do give away stupid ones when we don’t need to and that’s what the boys have got to look at.

“If there is a 50-50 ball, we need to think twice about going for it. Penalties are crucial and they can kill us so we need to be on the money with that.”

Bayliss expects to keep a settled squad this week. He said: “We are expecting to be pretty much unchanged from last week. There is no one pushing from the seconds because they haven’t had games. We are planning to keep things much the same this weekend.”

Article source: http://www.fanatix.com/news/glasgow-warriors-v-toulon-heineken-cup-live-rugby-union-streaming-game-preview/177000/

Director of rugby Neil Bayliss wants Cornish All Blacks to impress