Bristol Bears Coach Ward Emphasizes Importance of Securing Home Wins

Bristol Bears head coach Dave Ward stated that the team must begin securing victories at home as Premiership Women’s Rugby resumes this weekend. The Bears have not yet achieved a home win in the league this season; all three of their league victories have occurred away, while their home matches resulted in losses to Saracens and Harlequins. Following a two-week league hiatus, the team is positioned fifth in the table, holding a five-point lead over Trailfinders, who are one spot lower. Ward conveyed to BBC Radio Bristol, “It’s really important for us to start winning at home.” He further added, “It’s a massive game for them, it’s a massive game for the league and for the players – they’re champing at the bit and want to get playing,” With Saturday in Bristol predicted to be a washout following several days of freezing temperatures, and the team scheduled to play at their regular home venue, Shaftesbury Park, on a 3G pitch, Ward indicated that the weather conditions would “massively” influence team selection. Ward elaborated, “We want to play a fast game even if it’s raining, even if it’s a little bit cold and we want to run Trailfinders around.” He continued by explaining the tactical adjustments for wet conditions: “Naturally with wet weather you can have more scrums, you’ll have different challenges with that, probably more line-out mauls to defend and probably less of the ball moving past the 12 channel because naturally the conditions do tighten the game up, have we got that third kicking option potentially as well.” Ward concluded, “You start to think about substitutions, scrums are attritional, mauls are attritional, you’ve got to start bringing those players on and you’ll probably see that with selection this week.” The Bears’ most recent home fixture, held at Ashton Gate, resulted in a loss against Saracens. The upcoming game against Trailfinders marks the beginning of a sequence of five consecutive matches for Bristol leading up to Christmas. Prop Hollie Cunningham addressed several issues that emerged from their initial games. Cunningham stated, “It was a good time to have a break where we can regroup, reform.” She added, “We’ve got a really heavy five-week block coming up so it gives us the chance as players to have a reflection on the previous block and also set ourselves targets for where we want to go moving forward.” Regarding their home performance, she remarked, “We haven’t been able to quite do what we wanted at home but I think we’ve put them to bed, we’ve reviewed them. We’ve been like, ‘right these are our pick-ups’. We can do it away so let’s do it at home.”