I would like to welcome our supporters back to the Arms Park for Friday nights Heineken Cup match. The whole squad are looking forward to another home game having enjoyed some great occasions in Cardiff prior to the autumn break.
There have already been some big games this season and Ive no doubt this is another one. We will be looking for a big crowd and hopefully a vocal crowd to get behind the team.
We couldnt have had a better start in the tournament with 10 points out of 10, but thats all we have achieved a good start. The next two games can put us is a great position where we can take huge strides forward or they will put us under a lot of pressure. So the next two games are massive. The first game is paramount, because obviously we need to win our home games if we are to progress in this competition.
The big EDF Energy and Heineken Cup matches in October were extremely physical and at that stage we cold have done with a little bit of a break, a week off would have been brilliant. The last twenty minutes against Bath we were just hanging in there. We thought perhaps the break was too long so we tried to bridge that gap with a run out against Glamorgan Wanderers knowing that we had some big matches coming.
Having performed so well in October the result against Glasgow was even more disappointing. The game was bitterly disappointing in all aspects, however weve dusted ourselves off since then and had a long hard look at ourselves. We realise we need the same type of rugby, with same intensity and tempo as we were playing before the break if we are to win matches. Up in Scotland, we had two good opportunities in the opening 15 minutes, where it looked harder not to score than it was to score a try, after that I felt it was all Glasgow.
With an outside half of the calibre of Dan Parks its difficult to get back into a match because he controls the game so well. We were always playing catch up and failed to reach the standards we had set in nearly all aspects of our game, which was obviously hugely frustrating and disappointing.
Our focus now turns to the Heineken Cup. Biarritz maybe going through a difficult spell but they still have the capability of beating most sides as they are a quality outfit. They have experienced players right across the board and a very strong set piece game. We have to get back to the high standards that we have set ourselves if we are going to get the right result tonight.