Bournville Head Coach Matt Price wants his players to show more self-belief when they are playing away from Avery Fields.
Bournville have become a formidable force on their home turf – artificial though the grass may be – but they have yet to transfer that form into away games.
Last season Bournville won only once on the road – at Hornets in their final away match of the campaign – and have started the new one with consecutive narrow defeats at Macclesfield and at Taunton.
In both games Bournville have looked tentative at times but have also shown signs of having the ability to pick up more than bonus points on their travels.
“We left a lot of points out there which is really frustrating. We didn’t execute how we wanted to especially in that wide channel,” Price said.
“We knew Taunton were susceptible wide, but it wasn’t just there. We let them off the hook in a number of areas.
“Set-piece wise we were pretty dominant. The scrum absolutely blitzed them but, again, what is the result off that? It’s all very well having a dominant scrum but what are we doing off it?
“If we are not converting field position into points then all that effort is wasted. We have to look at that and look at a bit of clarity about individuals’ roles and responsibilities.
“We have to be accurate. We have three pillars which is our physicality, pace and accuracy. If we get all three we will win a game. We probably had one-and-a-half today.
“We had plenty of chances but we were not as accurate as Taunton were.
“You also have to come to places like this, away from home, and believe that you belong. We have to start believing as a group that we belong in this top six.
“As soon as we start doing that we will start putting teams away on the road. Away from home we have to flip it round and say the question is: ‘can you live with us?’ not ‘can we live with you?’
“We do that at home, we also have to do that away from home. Teams should be worried about us because we have a great backline and scrum and we have some fantastic ball players.”
The fact that Bournville were resilient enough to salvage a losing bonus point thanks to a last-gasp penalty from Freddie Morgan was some consolation for Price.
“Freddie had a tough first 40 minutes but he had a better second 40 and to then step up and nudge a wet haggis over from 40 metres meant we came away with a point when it could, quick honestly have been 40-27,” he said.
“We never give in, we always attack from anywhere and we will cause team problems but this was an opportunity missed. There are not many opportunities to come here and win. We had a chance but we didn’t convert it.”
