Bristol boss Richard Hill says his side are improving despite watching their sixth defeat of the season at Northampton.
Bristol boss staying positive despite another defeat
Bristol boss Richard Hill says his side are improving despite watching their sixth defeat of the season at Northampton.
Bristol have lost all of their six games so far this season after they went down 30-17 at Franklins Gardens in their EDF Energy Cup opener.
Referee Nigel Owens dished out five yellow cards and Bristol were down to 13 men early in the second half when Saints rattled up 22 unanswered points to effectively seal the match.
Despite watching yet another loss, Hill says that his men are improving but need to cut out the errors that are costing them.
"Things are picking up," said Hill.
"We aren't playing terribly, but we are shooting ourselves in the foot."
Errors
"The story of our season is that we tend to let the other team score within about 15 seconds of getting the ball.
"We tend to kick deep, they counter-attack and within 15 seconds, they are under our posts.
"That is killing us at the moment. We defended well with 13 men, then missed touch and they scored a try in he corner."
Hill was delighted with Mathew Turner, who scored two tries on his debut for the club despite only just joining the squad.
"I was delighted with Mathew Turner," Hill added.
"He has only had two training sessions with us and went on to score tries on both wings and make a try-saving tackle.
"He was spotted playing on the sevens circuit and I was told he was special, so we moved quickly."
Changes
Both teams made wholesale changes for the game after defeats during the week, and Northampton boss Jim Mallinder says that could have been a reason for his men looking flat in the first half.
The second half was a big difference though and Mallinder was satisfied to win whilst running the rule over a few new players.
"We were a bit flat in the first half and we talked at half-time about picking up the tempo," said Mallinder.
"It was a chance to have a look at a few players and I was very pleased with the way we played and to get a bonus point."