Bristol Rugby have got their sights set on qualifying for next season's Heineken Cup - and the Guinness Premiership leaders are flying in the European Challenge Cup with a 14-points harvest from their opening three Pool 1 matches...
Bristol Rugby have got their sights set on qualifying for next season's Heineken Cup - and the Guinness Premiership leaders are flying in the European Challenge Cup with a 14-points harvest from their opening three Pool 1 matches.
And winning in France last weekend when they beat Bayonne 38-17 was another important piece in Director of Rugby Richard Hill's blueprint for the future of the resurgent West Country club.
"It was a very good experience to win in France and it was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend," said Hill.
"We are taking the return leg on Friday night very seriously and the aim has to be for another five points. At the moment my intention is to make just one change from last weekend's team. Nathan Budgett suffered a shoulder injury so we are likely to call up Craig Short as reward for all his fine efforts so far this season.
"And, match by match in the European Challenge Cup, our players are getting more and more used to the various demands of playing in Europe and obviously our aim is to be playing in the Heineken Cup.
"It goes without saying that we want to do very well in the European Challenge Cup but it is not quite the same as playing in front of 44,112 people - as Sale did in Paris at the weekend - and in that sense I see the tournament as an extremely valuable stepping stone to the Heineken Cup.
"There are many valuable aspects to playing in the tournament, experiencing different cultures and styles of play down to the different hotels and food and the long journeys involved.
"In our group we have opponents from France, Romania and Wales so we have got tremendous variety, which all helps in learning about playing in Europe.
"At Bayonne we had gale force winds and driving rain - the referee had to keep stopping the match because the advertising hoardings were being blown onto the pitch - and, as we were playing into the wind in the first half, we simply could not kick the ball.
"That meant keeping the ball in hand and our ball retention and phase play was excellent, resulting in us scoring three very good tries and that was effectively the job done by half-time before we had the gale on our backs. Now we are focusing on the return leg."
