By Elliott Josypenko
February 10 2005

Pertemps Bees are back to being underdogs - and that is just the way Jim Jenner likes it. The giant Number 8 did not enjoy his spell as skipper last weekend as Coventry racked up a half century of points against his side at Butts Stadium as they eventually lost 50-7.

But, perversely, Jenner believes the defeat could help Bees regain a little of their confidence.

He said: "We have been going through a sticky piece of form recently and that is going to be a low point for years to come.

"It is a real disappointment, so we have to start putting things back together again and lifting ourselves up.

"Somehow we seem to have lost our confidence on the park. Coventry are quite the reverse, they are having a good run of form and they are playing with a lot of confidence and playing some good rugby.

"Confidence has been ebbing away from our game for a month or so now. I think a lot of it is to do with the start of the season when we did tremendously well.

"The next step was that people over-rated us, We were a part-time outfit performing well and people were talking about us winning the league.

"When we lost some tough games people think there is a bigger gap in this league than there actually is. They forget that teams at the bottom are losing games by just a few points

"We lost some games people thought we were going to win and our confidence started to slide a bit and people start to question themselves.

"You are looking at the difficulties of a part-time team staying consistently on form and it is a tough challenge for anyone.

"I have a huge amount of confidence in the players we have got and Phil Maynard, the director of rugby, is quite inspirational at times like this." Bees face first and second, Bristol at home and Plymouth away, before a Powergen Shield semifinal clash at Sharmans Cross Road against Bedford, with a Twickenham final as the prize.

But Jenner said: "Bees have always been at their strongest, I have felt, in times of adversity and I am quite looking forward to those games.

"We are back to being underdogs again now and I would rather be an underdog than a favourite any day of the week."

-Roger Clarke (Evening Mail)