Otley Comment

Andre Bester

“Otley didn’t want to play rugby in the second half, they came out and all they did was kick the bombs up and pick and drive, they weren’t interested in playing rugby. And it’s very difficult to get the ball off a team that’s playing that way.

I thought our composure was excellent and I thought our backs stood up today and said we’ve arrived on the scene in England.

In twelve months time this pack is going to be immense, because to come up here in December – and think where we were 12 months ago – and think where we can go in the next 12 months.

Even if we had lost today I would still have been very positive, I was positive about how the forwards played, I was positive about how the backs played. I know this is a bad place to come to try and get a result.

We scored three excellent tries and we should have scored another two or three, but that will come with maturity. We’re a young side, they’re an old side, the difference is we’ve arrived and we are going places, where are these guys going to?

The refereeing? The less said about the refereeing standard of today the better. I don’t mind somebody being consistently bad, but he’s been inconsistent in everything that he was doing.

He destroyed us in the scrums, first scrum they stood up nothing, second scrum we stood up and he penalized us, which is correct, but he should have penalized them before.

Then they stood up on other occasions, their tight-head prop had his hand on the ground the whole time, they were playing us off the ball, they were trying to gouge us. I take my hat off to our young guys today, they were awesome.

I thought we played out of our skin! To come up to Otley and do this – and Harlequins are the only other side capable of doing this – to do this with the team that we have, that’s special.

This is by far our best win of the year, our best performance! Because it was more than just the physicality, it was the mental approach. Otley grind you down, they kick you, they gouge you, they stamp on you, the referees decisions against you – all those things. I’m really happy, I’ve not been as happy all year as I am after this match today.”

“Andre puts me at ten every now and then for the last few minutes and just says do what you want. So I always turn to Lee and asked him what he wants and just says, “Yeah, just go for it!”

We called a move off the line out but they had chance to come up, so I just played what was on from there and it worked out. Andre tells you not to chip unless you can score; I chipped one last week and didn’t score, so I owed him one. The full back was straight on me and if I was going to step him I would’ve had to slow down, so I just went for it.

I always think that I’m an attacking player, so to me I see that as the easiest thing in the game. People like Lee Blackett, I’ve seen him have games which I personally think he’s been amazing and no ones picked up on it.

I was pleased to score the winning points, I kept on looking at the scoreboard and when you are a winger you always think you can win it. But going in at ten I was more concerned about putting more emphasis on other parts of my game but it was nice for it to come off.

I thought it was a gamble putting me at ten, but Andre’s got more faith in my abilities than I have, but I’ve always been like that. Andre said he was going to put me in at ten in the last few minutes and I said ok if we’re wining by 60! Then he said it again as I was running past him near the end, so I thought I’d got away with it, but then Mike got injured and I moved there.

Last year up here was a low point and I think that epitomised last year, we had the players to do it, but we just didn’t do it every now and then.

The boys have just been congratulating me in there, but it was the pack that won that game today. If you can come here and muscle those lads around – because they’re all cracking players in the front row – so to come here and match them, you’ll beat them.”