Garath Archer speaks ahead of the Gloucester game

Garath Archer
By Duncan Wood
September 20 2002

I was fortunate enough to be able to speak to Garath Archer this week in a break from training. I was able to ask him about his captaincy experience and how he thinks the season has been for Bristol so far.

How did you find your first experience of captaining Bristol?

It went all right. I don't think that captaining the side makes a lot of difference to me personally. Don't get me wrong, being captain of Bristol is a great honour. But there are some good leaders and decision-makers in the team and they had a lot of say in dictating the way we played. I didn't have to do much more than decide when to kick for touch and when to kick for the corners.

In hindsight, would you have changed anything about the way you led the team?

No, not at all.

And would you swap the try you scored for a win?

Yes, absolutely.

Is captaining the side something that you'd like to repeat given the opportunity?

Yes. It's a great honour, it's a privilege. It's about the management saying that they appreciate the work you do and that they believe in you. It's a nice confidence boost.

Are you fairly happy with your personal form at the moment?

Yeah, it's going ok.

And how about the 3 team performances to date?

Against Saracens we were dreadful. We were over confident and tried to introduce too many ideas too quickly. We were naïve.

Moving into Wasps, we went back to basics. It was a very big spirited performance and the lads dug really deep. It was a massive improvement and I'm very disappointed not to come away with the win. On another day, in exactly the same circumstances, we might have won that game.

Against Northampton, I think we stepped it up to another level. Again, sticking at the basics, working very, very hard. We got physical with Northampton. Silly little mistakes let us down. Again, on another day in the same circumstances, we could have won that one as well.

We've had a little bit of bad luck but that's not to say that we're not looking at ourselves. We've got to stop these silly mistakes. We've got to improve on errors, we've got to improve on tackles. We're not allowed to miss any more tackles.

What we have been crying out for is an experienced player in the midfield. We've got a good understanding between the packs of forwards and 9 and 10 but things are breaking down a little bit between that and the outside backs.

What we've been screaming out for is an experienced head in the centre who can come in create that link and dominate that vital area of the field. Daryl Gibson has arrived and hopefully he'll be that man.

It's probably asking a lot for one man to come in and turn things around immediately?

It is, but the man's an All Black. He's here and he's getting well paid to come here and do a job and we do expect things from him.

As usual, you'll probably get quite a reception at Kingsholm. How do you deal with that? Do you try and make it work in your favour?

It doesn't bother me in the slightest. It's water of a duck's back. I know my trade and when I go out there and switch into rugby mode, I'm just doing what I know best.

And, if anything, if they're giving you stick then it's probably a compliment?

Yes.

Have you been doing anything different in training this week to prepare for Gloucester or is it business as usual?

No, all we have to do is continue to improve along the lines that we're on because we're on the right track. We're confident of that. We just need to have a few less mistakes, a little more understanding, and a little more clarity of what we're doing. Clear understanding reduces errors.

So, focus on your own game rather than that of the opposition?

Absolutely. 100%.

Is it encouraging that the last couple of games have been so close or frustrating?

It's been incredibly frustrating. But, you know, sometimes adversity can make better people of us all. It's been a tough start and it's let us know that we're not invincible. We know we're not a bad team and we know the reality of our situation and we know that we're going to have to work very, very hard if we're going to be successful this year.