By Duncan Wood
January 23 2003

Here is a brief summary of last night's Supporters' Forum where Daryl Gibson, Peter Thorburn, David Winnie, Jimmy Grant and Steve Hill fielded questions from an audience of Bristol Shoguns' supporters.

I didn't take notes so I'm really just trying to remember some of the more salient points.

Daryl Gibson was asked about the differences between playing in New Zealand and England. He reckoned that it's actually more physical in England, the players are bigger and seek contact more than their New Zealand counterparts. He also reckoned that more nonsense goes on at the ruck in terms of slowing the ball down.

When asked about who would win the World Cup, he naturally replied 'New Zealand' with a massive grin on his face!

Daryl also got his own back on Steve Hill of the Evening Post by asking how Steve came up with his player ratings! Steve stammered and stuttered a bit and said it was the hardest part of the job and that it was a soccer scoring scheme applied to rugby and it doesn't work as well. He also revealed that the player who was most upset by a rating was Josh Lewsey who reckoned he deserved a 7 rather than a 6.

Peter Thorburn redressed the balance a little by complimenting Steve on his style of reporting, saying that it had been a pleasure working with him and that he rated him as one of the very best journalists he had worked with worldwide.

Peter was inevitably questioned on the team selection for Rotherham and he admitted that he had made an error in judgement and underestimated Rotherham a little. He did point out the injury situation and admitted that he had rested 3 players. He went on to say that, if we were playing this weekend in the Cup, that we would struggle to put a full strength team out due to injuries.

When asked about the difference between home and away performances, he said that the team do not play a different style of rugby. He did ponder the role of the touch judge and pointed out that they are often locals, brought in by the RFU to keep expenses down and that they sometimes get involved in incidents that they shouldn't.

Peter also confirmed that Garath Archer would remain as captain for the rest of the season, that he had accepted the mantle slightly reluctantly but had done a magnificent job. He also said that he though Ross Beattie would still go on to make a fine captain in the future.

Peter was asked about the players' contractual situation at the end of the season and he pointed out that most players sign deals so this situation comes up every season at virtually every club.

He said that it was being addressed but that he had to bear in mind the World Cup when he'll be without key players for quite some time.

He said the back 3 was a priority with only Lee Best under contract beyond season end. Also outside half, with Matt Carrington, Felipe Contepomi and Shane Drahm all up for renewal. And finally second row where only Scott Morgan is under contract beyond the end of the season.

He went on to pay tribute to the calibre of player coming out of the Academy and said that the club was making real strides in not losing players who may not be ready for the Premiership at age 21 but could well be in a couple of years time e.g. Richard Skuse and Richard Hunt. He reckoned that some of these young players are more professional in their whole outlook than some older pros.

Despite the forum trying to focus on the Malcolm situation, David Winnie was grilled on the Malcolm situation and he replied that Malcolm would be leaving but was talking to various partners about taking over the club.

He has been disappointed by the lack of response from the Bristol business community and that, in an ideal world, the club will remain in Bristol but anything was possible including a move from the city.

He really echoed what has been said in the press in recent weeks.

Finally, Jimmy Grant was asked about the England sqaud selection. He reckoned that Andrew Higgins should get a chance shortly as there are few quality 13s in English rugby and he can't believe that Arch and Alex Brown aren't in the reckoning. They do make videos of players and send them to the National setup so they are lobbying individual cases.

That's about it. I haven't listed everyhting but tried to document the points of interest!