Fringe men given a chance to shine

Jan 28 2010 by Nick Purewal, The Journal

“It’s certainly an opportunity to involve some players who don’t get as much game time as we would like and certainly not as much game time as they would like. So the next two weeks are important for them. I thought we did well at Worcester when we had a similar kind of side out to be honest, that was pretty much Worcester’s first team.

“And they are really looking forward to this game, they know it’s an opportunity they’ve got to take because their chances are more limited than everyone would want.

“Hopefully they’ll show what they can do and then make selection very difficult for us as coaches when we get back to the Premiership in a couple of weeks.”

Reiterating the season-long stance that this competition would prove a breeding ground for young Falcons talent, Bates said no one is under any false illusion about their chances of progression.

“I think we can say that our chances of winning the competition are slim!” he quipped, revealing some senior men have been put through varied training patterns to keep them fresh.

“But we’ve said from the word go that with a squad that is limited in numbers it’s very difficult for us to fight on three fronts consistently with the same type of team. This was always going to be an opportunity for us to try to see whether we could give our younger guys a go and maybe some of those that haven’t played that much too.

“It’s important too that some of the guys get a rest and recharge batteries, so they’ve kept training but they have been doing slightly different things to work on maintaining certain levels of strength and sharpness.

“Experience shows that you can’t play every game and as much as a rest a change is important too, hence the slightly different training emphasis.

“The team actually is the focal point, because without the team doing well individuals can not hope to play, so it’s about good preparation and the emphasis being on making sure we know what we’re trying to achieve, giving the players the greatest opportunity to show what they can do and do themselves justice.

“It might be a little less intense in terms of result, but I don’t expect Cardiff to be any less intense in terms of pace or physicality.”