By David Higgs
October 17 2002

The second Supporters Forum of the season was held last night at the club. Answering questions were Peter Thorburn, James Grant, Mike Rafter and Garath Archer. Before the questions Supporters Club chairman David Higgs presented Garath with the Supporters Player of the Month award for September.

Early questions focused on the teams poor start to the season as far as results were concerned but generally the opinion of the audience was that despite the results the standard and style of rugby was a vast improvement on last year.

The first response from the panel to a question as to what would be the catalyst for winning was from Mike saying a crowd of 12,000! Peter backed this by saying that the win against Leicester was in no small part due to the support of the Bristol fans after the dismissal of Julian White. The whole team was lifted by the support and the reaction after the game.

In response to a question on the importance of the up coming games against Harlequins, London Irish and Newcastle, Peter was adamant that losing any of those games was not the end of the world and any talk of relegation was short-sighted with 16 games to play.

There had been a poor start to the season particularly the Saracens game but the arrival of Daryl Gibson coincided with an improved defensive performance conceding only 6 tries in 3 games 2 of which were away from home.

Peter admitted that the team including the coaching staff were slow learners, but the team were learning from mistakes. Video evidence was being used to name and shame but it was finding the right motivators for individual players that was key. It was a combination of carrot and stick, and sometimes carrot from behind to ensure there was no one in the comfort zone.

Peter also highlighted that the team would be without the Argentineans for much of November, which led to a question as to, whether the club had decided whether or not to appeal the Julian White ban. Peter expressed the view that the RFU panel had already decided the matter before the hearing. Graham Rowntree had provided a statement to the panel to say that he felt no butt and that any suggestion to that effect to the touchjudge had been gamesmanship. Peter felt that an appeal was only worthwhile if new evidence was available and as there was none there was no point appealing.

Many of the questions were about the standard of refereeing particularly on the number of penalties the team concedes and yellow cards against Leinster. Peter's reply was that whatever the view on the performance of referees, and it was clear he had a few, there was no point in complaining or raising matters with them afterwards as it served no purpose and would probably be detrimental as referees do not like to be criticised.

On squad injuries, Neil McCarthy's X-rays were not pretty and following his operation he would be out for 5 months. Ross Beattie had resumed light training but was some way off playing. Many of the squad were carrying injuries which was reducing the selection options. There would be changes for Saturday with some new faces including Rhys Oakley in the back row.

Garath was asked why the team was contesting fewer opposition lineouts. His reply was that if that was the case it was not a conscience decision it was more an indication of the game changing. Teams were now aware of the threat of the likes of Alex Brown, Steve Borthwick and Ben Kay and were reducing their effectiveness by using more jumpers.

Garath was also asked how he was adapting to being captain. He said that he was still adjusting to the role following the injury to Ross Beattie but that he was enjoying the challenge. He was having to think more about the game as a whole rather than just his own play and this was helping his discipline as he had no time to get annoyed. His style was to lead by example and he left the talking to Gus.

The Forum ended with Garath asking the supporters to get behind the team who were well aware of their responsibilities to perform on the pitch and were doing all they could to ensure the results are turned around. The crowd could help by recreating the atmosphere of the Leicester game.