wixfjord wrote:curates_egg wrote:There was a lot of 'Bath are poor' 'I expect us to win'. Below are two referring to us getting a try BP (one from another thread).
Bath are a poor side, aim should be 5 points.
I think a win should be very doable and realistically we should be targeting all 5 points this weekend.
It was the same with Toulouse.
People seem to forget that away fixtures in European rugby are always difficult.
This 'expecting a win' thing really gets on my nerves: Because of where I live, I go to more away games than home ones and I never expect anything.
Bath is a proud club, with good players and good coaches. The pitch and conditions were always going to be poor. We were always going to get sucked into a dogfight. You should never expect to win a dogfight.
Given how lacking in oompf our pack was, you get the impression they may have swallowed the same stuff.
So people saying we should be
aiming for 5 points? Is that all?!
The rain was a leveller but to listen to some of ye lads you'd think we were lighting our cigars on Wednesday and proclaiming we'd walk away with a 50 pointer!
Bath are a objectively a mid table side who were missing Priestland, Faletau, Burns, Mercer, Joseph, Watson, Obano and others.
Again, I think our performance needs to be put in context a bit. We didn't play well, but got a solid result given the conditions.
“Is that all...”. Ah c’mon. I’m not going to harvest quotes for you, Curates gave you a couple and there are plenty more if you chose to look for them. There were some who definitely claimed we should or would win handily and should/ would get 5 points. It’s rubbish to say that’s not complacency and smacking of arrogance.
And what’s this stuff about what we should be aiming at? We all accept we want to play to the highest standard, but to ignore factors such as the opposition, weather, etc. in judging a specific match and what’s reasonable in context, is a different kettle of fish altogether.
The objective reality was that opposition WAS highly motivated and playing at home, the weather WAS terrible, the pitch IS tight and heavy. Those aren’t excuses they are factors that should have led people to temper their expectations. That is not “all”- the presumption was wrong.
Yesterday was a very good result- I’m not going to indulge in Dunphyesque definitions of “great” versus “good”. But that performance- if not great, was not bad. We didn’t play to our optimum, but still got four points. That’s probably the definition of not bad!
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