Stuart Hooper tells his Bath players to shape up
BRISTOL, ENGLAND - JANUARY 29: Bath Director of Rugby Stuart Hooper looks on ahead of the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match between Bristol Bears and Bath at Ashton Gate on January 29, 2021 in Bristol, England. Sporting stadiums around the UK remain under strict restrictions due to the Coronavirus Pandemic as Government social distancing laws prohibit fans inside venues resulting in games being played behind closed doors. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
BATH director of rugby Stuart Hooper accepted his side need to take a hard look at themselves after this horror show.
Hooper said: “We’ve obviously got work to do as we are a long way from what we are capable of delivering.
“As individuals they need to look at their game as there is no point in trying to hide behind this.
“We had everything thrown at us with changes and decisions but we still need to be a lot better than that.
“We lost our two lineout forwards but that’s not going to cover up our deficiencies as the scoreboard told the story.
“Whoever we have on the field, we expect more than that. We stepped out of line in defence and it proved costly as we didn’t rely on each other to do the right thing at the right time.”
Despite their emphatic win, Bristol director of rugby, Pat Lam, still had reservations about their performance.
He said: “We played like a team in the first half but we played as individuals in the second.
“Before the interval we worked hard for each other but after that we became average and ended up defending for periods of time.
“We defended well but we shouldn’t have been defending at all as we lost a bit of control.”
