Post-match reaction | Head coach Matt Sherratt and scrum half Johan Mulder react to the pre-season friendly against Ealing Trailfinders at Trailfinders Sports Ground on Saturday afternoon.
The Blue and Blacks started strongly and led at the end of the first half, before the home side fought back and eventually prevailed 45-31.
Head coach Matt Sherratt
“It was good in patches I think and one of those very typical first pre-season games.
“We had 11 new boys, three Academy products, so Matty Young, Tom Bowen, Steph Emanuel and obviously Steph's got a cracking try.
“People like Gwilym Bradley, special mention to him. It’s been 20 months I think since his last game, so for him to get on for the last 20 was a positive. Career on the line if we're honest with his injury, so for him to get back on the pitch is a huge positive.
“There's lots of new combinations, two new nines, a new 10 so there was some unfamiliarity there if you like.
“Probably the areas that we need to improve on is the penalty count is very high. I think it was 18 penalties today and contact areas where we turned the ball over a few too many times. It stopped us imprinting as much of our game on the pitch as we'd have liked but as I said a very typical first run out.
“It’s a six-day turnaround until Bath now, and we have some players back and probably more familiar faces.
“It’s obviously a special place, the Arms Park. It's important that we give the fans a good first impression of our first time game next week and I’m sure we will.”
Scrum-half Johan Mulder
“It was very exciting and I didn't think we were going to play in the official kit for the season, so that was nice.
“We’re a bit disappointed that we didn't win, but I think it was a good first hit out.
“We made too many errors, so we couldn't go through the phases. When we got the ball, actually, and expressed ourselves, we played good rugby, but we just need to hold onto the ball maybe more in the 22, and not be frantic.
“If we can sort those areas out, I think we're on track.
“I told one of the boys, I don't think this counts as a debut because it's still warm up games, but I'll take it.
“It’s always fun scoring tries, so I enjoy that. We called a move where all the backs joined in and I just heard the hcall on the blind and saw the guy shifting a bit and just tried to power through and scored my try.”