Kingstone Press League 1 Preview: Coventry Bears v University of Gloucestershire All Golds
Coventry Bears were beaten 28-18 at home by London Skolars.
Coach Tom Tsang said: “I thought the break would do us good after a tough run of games but I think it upset our routine and momentum a little bit.
“It would probably have been better for us just to stick in the groove. We didn’t execute any of the stuff we’d been doing in training or what had been working well for us in the past.
“I was very disappointed in the performance and the result. The only slight positive to take out of it was that we kept the scoreline close.
“Gloucester got one over on us when we went down there in the middle of the season and so we’ll be wanting to get our own back and use that as motivation.
“But more so, I think that there’s a lot of individuals who need to focus on their own performance.
“It’s going to be a tough game. Gloucester are sitting at the top of the pile of the southern clubs and they deserve that. We want to do our best and improve on last week and hope we can finish strongly at home and take what we can into next season.”
University of Gloucestershire All Golds put in a good performance against Keighley Cougars last week.
Coach Lee Greenwood said: “We ran them close for a bit. We competed for 50 minutes and then just sort of crumbled as a result of the defensive work we had to do.
“Straight after half-time was the key to the game. We were trapped on our own line defending and it took a lot of energy out of us. It’s another learning curve for us really.”
The All Golds are currently the highest placed southern team in League 1 just ahead of Oxford on points’ difference but Greenwood says his team will be going all out to win at Coventry.
“We want to go there and win and finish on a high,” he said.
“We’re certainly going to train well this week. We’re not tailing off, we want to go to Coventry and finish with this group of players with a win.
“We don’t want to be the best southern team on points’ difference, we want to be clear of Oxford. If they get beat on Saturday and we can win, we’re two points clear. It would be a nice way to finish off the season.”