Dave Ward: Bristol want to put unbeaten Gloucester ‘under pressure’

Bristol head coach Dave Ward says his team have to put Gloucester-Hartpury under early pressure if they are to end the visitors’ unbeaten run on Saturday.

Bristol are sixth, 24 points behind their West country rivals, and without a win in their last two league games.

“We’ve got to put pressure on them early, score plenty of points and then see how they react,” said Ward.

“I’ve said to the girls, all winning runs come to an end. Our challenge is to do that this weekend.”

Gloucester-Hartpury have never won the Premier 15s title but have been entirely dominant this season and are four points clear of second-placed Exeter.

They beat Bristol 36-5 in the reverse fixture in November.

“No-one has really put them under any pressure yet,” Ward told BBC Radio Bristol.

“I love an underdog story, I quite like that everyone is writing us off. We’ll get there on Saturday and everyone will be talking about how much Gloucester are going to win by – that’s great for me.

“The challenge for the group is let’s not just roll over like a lot of teams have done in this league, let’s go and put pressure on them early and see what their mental resilience is.”

Bristol reached the Premier 15s play-offs last season but are currently five points adrift of Saracens in fourth place.

They have nine remaining matches in the campaign and Ward suggested they may need to reach 60 points to break into the top four.

“If we lose this weekend that’s three games with zero points – especially if we don’t get a bonus point – all of a sudden we start to drift away a little bit,” Ward continued.

“We’re only on 20 points at the moment and we’re halfway through the season exactly after Saturday, so we’ll know exactly what we’ll need to do the second half of the season to make sure we get into that top four places.”