JBFC II

https://www.bristolrugby.co.uk/news/club-statement-joe-batley/ Shocked Get well soon Joe

And tbf we need a load of new players, the team at the moment would go back down easily so strength in depth is vital. That's 17 new signings with 3 more to come apparently and really I'm still not convinced we will stay up

From the team this season I'd imagine Vui, Thomas, Luatua, Haining, Madigan, Piutau, Leuia, Morahan will all start next season

7 new signings, all championship players but all of them have been standouts v us this season. A few more premiership experience players needed to give us a chance of survival though in my opinion https://www.bristolrugby.co.uk/news/lam-adds-seven-standout-championship-players-to-squad/

A whole 4 pages about last nights game, but apparently they don't care about us...

How I view next season: Attack: Our strongest area but still needs improving. With the ball in hand at times we can be electric, but we won't be given the space if we go up next year. Sunday showed that against a well organised defence without the space to run in we make mistakes and allow for the opposition to turn the ball over way too easily. Pat Lam needs to go back to the basics here in many ways, we were being too fancy on Sunday (trying too many inside channel passes) whilst also, when the ball came to our forwards they acted as a pivot, not running into contact and giving too slow ball for our backs. Lots of improvement needed. Defence: Much improved since the Robinson days, our scramble defence on our try line is exceptional at times and has won us a couple of games. Despite that, our line speed is way too slow. Jersey were up in our players faces as soon as they got the ball and we gave them time to get the ball and make a decision, a luxury which we weren't afforded. Some of the tackling on Saturday (especially Madigans shocking attempt to tackle their scrum half) was very poor for 'international' standard players. We conceded 3 tries on Saturday due to mistakes, these need to be cut out sharpish because no premiership side will do the same. Scrum/pack: Dominated again. Jersey got into our faces and pushed us back on nearly every scrum. this needs to be looked at for next season and although we are strengthening these are still international players who surely must be able to be competitive against the likes of Jersey. I'd imagine a forwards coach will be brought in who will hopefully be able to improve the pack and make it competitive next season. We can have the best backs in the world next year but if we can't be competitive in the forwards they'll get limited service and so they'll be rendered useless. Overall, I'd say we are in a better position than we were 2 years ago, we have already been able to bring players in for next year who will all strengthen the squad and at times we've looked superb this year. The style of rugby is much better than under Robinson but we don't have the scrum superiority that we had last time round, despite apparently having a higher quality pack. With work on this though I can see us scraping survival, although it will be a massive ask at this rate.

Being a 'teenager' myself, I know one gashead (despite living in Westbury on trym...) they are really rare and so that makes it difficult to rip into them...

At least David Brent means to be cringy, this kid is actually being serious....

6/7ths apparently, so not quite a full Tilson but pretty close

I think he might be joking considering Nicholls has scored like 1 in 25 for them since joining from Peterborough (and becoming their 3rd most expensive signing in the process)...

Well, that was awful.... Shocking performance all round, not helped by the most incompetent ref I've seen in a long time and a very well organised Jersey defence

Some of them are predicting they will take 200 to MK today. Flashback to this....

Can't see this ending up like Sunderland, we were poor in that first half but took our chances, we've been solid this half and would have at least 3 with a competent referee Now watch us lose 3-2....

38-3 up at London Scottish at half time, surely even bristol can't mess this up?

We had something like a 98% attendance when compared to our capacity and only 3-4 clubs sold out the away end...

I honestly think they'd get 15-16k if they were in our position, they last averaged 20k 60 years ago and they haven't averaged over 10k for over 40 years, including when they were in the 2nd division back in the 90s

When we were bottom of league one, having not won a league game all season on a Tuesday night in October at home to Brentford, we still had an attendance of 10.6k. Rovers have yet to have an attendance higher than that this season....

Love this one: After how much spent and won't even make the playoffs. Again. Shame. We are currently 6th having spent less in the last five years than 16 other clubs in the league on transfer fees, don't quite get his point. Oh and then Henbury Gas says: Just love to get them going over there. Its like taking sweets from a kid. they still hate me because i proved them all wrong about an ex city supporter, now a dedicated gashead. Pretty certain you were proved wrong by club officials and went off with your tail between your legs mate...

I think the disciple is improving massively, at scrum time it is still poor but in other areas its much better, I remember the Worcester play off final a few years ago where we had 4 yellows in two games and it cost us promotion. Our run in is favourable whereas Ealing still have to go to Leeds, Doncaster, the pirates and Jersey which are all tough games. Complete credit to everyone involved I agree, if we win our remaining 7 we'll be the first team ever to do so, some achievement that

At the same time a lot of decisions go against us, no arms charge into the ruck yesterday that could very easily have been a red, Jordan Williams was tackled in the air but nothing was given, a Hugh tackle on leiua was missed, swings and roundabouts as they say

Another game where we play poorly and win! Set pieces were terrible yesterday, ealing were all over us but with the ball in hand we are outstanding at time, Jordan Williams was superb as we're many others. Hopefully that will mean some new signings in the next couple of weeks

5 points to 2, should have made it clearer haha

Absolutely massive game this one, the 7pm kick off means I can't make it but at least it's on sky (which is great on mute) Biggest game in years for Bristol, probably bigger than the recent play off final, win and we are promoted, lose and its right back in the balance. Going for a 5-2 bristol win with plenty of tries and a last minute Morahan score to win it! We need a massive step up from Bedford, the pack needs to be much stronger and we didn't see the best of the backs a couple of weeks back so we need them to get more involved Got my hartbury tickets this week, I know it's a lonhg way away but excited for the bristol invasion there

One can only imagine what arsenal TV would be like nowadays if they lost 2-0 to Preston....

Really lucky, Bedford could've been 10 points up at half time if they'd been more decisive, worst performance of the season so far. Anyway, it maintains our 9 point lead on Ealing and makes the game v them less important next week