EDF Energy Cup - : Bristol's Hull impressed with progress

Lee Robinson scores for Bristol

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Bristol's Hull impressed with progress

28 October 2007, 7:00 pm

By Staff

Bristol assistant coach Paul Hull believes the West Country team's performance in Sunday's EDF Energy Cup defeat of Llanelli was the best for some time.

Bristol head coach Richard Hill is a possible contender if Brian Ashton is to be replaced at the England helm - but he took a back seat for this game, leaving assistant Hull in charge.

The former Bristol and England full-back said after today's 18-11 success: ``We've had a bit of fun in training this past week but also preparing to win and the pre-match team talk was just about playing to win.

``In the first half they certainly did that, scoring two tries, and the boys had a lot of commitment and good attitude - this was probably the best we have played for a long time.

``Second half, obviously we knew Phil Davies [Scarlets director of rugby] would fire his players up, bringing six internationals off the bench - and we knew we would be up against it.

``The attitude and commitment in defence was outstanding and we held on right to the bitter end to secure the win.

``Obviously it was disappointing to concede a late try but we had been defending for 25 minutes at one stage.

``I'm happy with the win and if you win all your games you'll go through to the next stage.

He continued: ``Saracens beat Leeds on Friday so it will be an interesting tie next week at Vicarage Road.''

Bristol included scrum-half Shaun Perry for his first rugby since coming off at the interval of England's 36-0 drubbing in the pool game by eventual World Cup winners South Africa.

Hull added: ``Shaun's tackles today were outstanding against a Welsh scrum-half so I knew there was no motivation needed for him.

``He gave us another dimension, he barks at the forwards all day and the way that they played today is probably as a result of Perry's actions.''

Scarlets included three players back after the Rugby World Cup in their starting line-up - plus another five on the bench.

Davies said: ``We'll go back to work and look at it and we'll be better next time and hopefully make the right decisions.

``We were well beaten. We didn't provide a platform at set-piece or contact area. We were very persistent.

``We kept going and there was lots of effort, but we were not as smart as we have been or are capable of being. There are no complaints.

``I was hoping it wouldn't be difficult to reintegrate the World Cup players, but I think we've done it sensibly.

``We've given the boys a bit of time to get back into the whole thing. We feel we've trained reasonably well in the last few weeks and it's just disappointing. I'm not going to come out with a load of bull.

``We just weren't good and Bristol were better.

``We're a lot more capable in the set-piece, as we've proved in the last 18 months, than we were on this occasion.

``We'll just keep doing what we're doing. There's a lot of frustration with the players, but we have to put that to good use building up to the game against Leeds on Friday.

Davies continued: ``We were disappointed because we couldn't get a platform to attack from. It was interesting in the first 10 minutes and there were a couple of things we spoke about that we didn't implement as effectively we'd have liked and there was credit to Bristol there.

``But there's a bit of a disappointment from our end that we didn't put that platform together as well as we know we can. We had a selection plan and it's not changed really.

``We need to get our set-piece accurate and get a better contact area going forward and be a bit smarter with the football. So we'll be fine for next week. I wish it was as simple as to say Bristol had worked us out.

``They just played well and we didn't get any decent ball or any real platform and credit to them and there's a bit of frustration for us but everybody knows we're better than that.

``They had four points and we had one at the end, which was unbelievable considering the whole scenario. It was great to get a point.''