Familiarity didn't breed contempt for Rotherham

Good on the day
By Duncan Wood
December 24 2002

There wasn't that much between the 2 teams on Sunday. However, Rotherham fielded a settled side who worked well as a unit. They knew each other's game. Bristol had too many new combinations. That was the difference.

I think Steve Hill got some stick on the messageboard for his marks out of 10 but I reckon that he got it about right.

If you look at the individual performances, no-one had a stinker. No-one really played a blinder either but you can't really say that one player let the team down. Everyone had their ups and downs.

I think that the overall performance was more down to the fact that there was a lack of cohesion because so many unit parts of the team were playing together for the first time.

Take the front row. White, Nelson and Sheridan have all played plenty of first team games. But have they played as a front row unit together? They were further disrupted when Sheri moved into the 2nd row so early.

Similarly, have Scott Morgan and Ben Sturnham ever teamed up in the boiler room? Have Scott Morgan and Andrew Sheridan.

And I'm pretty sure that Ross Beattie, Rhys Oakley and Chris Morgan have never played as a back 3 for the first XV before.

Peter Richards and Shane Drahm have combined before so there was a bit of familiarity there but they haven't had an awful lot of game time together.

The centre partnership was completely new and I'm not even sure that Martin Shaw and Andrew Higgins have played much as a pairing.

You can see what I'm driving at. I don't think that it's any surprise that some of the best individual performanecs came from the wingers and fullback where David Rees, Brendon Daniel and Lee Best have all played quite a but together. They've been a unit before and it showed.

It's not really fair to target the players. They all gave it everything and it wasn't enough on the day.

They were up against a very good side in Rotherham who may not possess outstanding individuals but the sum of the parts makes a very good team.

Bristol simply had too many new combinations on Sunday. End of story