It was great to see the smiles return to Ashton Gate on Friday as Bristol beat old rivals Gloucester to win the Rifles Cup. A stark contrast to the bitter disappointment of the previous week’s European exit.
From my perspective, there was one clear element that defined the difference between the two games. That was the set piece. Our scrum was solid, lineouts were accurate and well-executed, and we were better at dealing with restarts.
Keeping possession, building sustained pressure and denying Gloucester attacking opportunities allowed us to play our way. By getting the basics right we looked a bit more like the table-topping team from last year.
