Somerset Cup Review – Head Coach

Reflecting on Saturday’s match against Midsomer Norton, Geoff Sluman the First XV team manager said: “Potentially this was a banana skin for us to slip up on because although Midsomer Norton are in Western Counties North this year they had experience of playing at our level last season so know about playing at this level, so we are very pleased with the way that the boys played.

“We didn’t pick our very strongest team for the match and were pleased to give some of the boys on the fringes some exposure in the first team which worked well because they all gave a good performance and played their part.

“It wasn’t perfect by any means and we didn’t deal with the re-start so well in the first half, but we learnt quickly and improved as the game went on.

“Midsomer Norton were spirited for the first 20 minutes and at that stage of the game we were level, but in the end our pace and phase play wore them down and they ran out of defenders all the time. As they got tired we played better and better.”

Albion’s semifinal opponents in the Somerset Cup will not be known until the draw is made.

This weekend sees the First XV return to South West One (West) action when they travel away to Forest of Dean side Newent who have a famous sloping pitch.

Geoff said: “We hope to carry on a lot of the momentum that we have built this week into our next game, which is against another tough Gloucestershire side who are above us in the table.

“Newent is always a difficult place to go and they know how to make the most of their sloping pitch, so we will have to be on our mettle.

“We are looking forward to the game and we have got four more players coming back and more people playing well which is going to make selection really difficult- but that’s a nice problem to be faced with!”

Tags: featured, full-image

Category: Previews / Reports -XV