Bath head coach Mike Ford has claimed his side are not afraid of playing against current European champions Toulon this weekend and are instead ready for the challenge that they will pose so as to raise their own game.
Bath have been placed in arguably the toughest of all the European pools and kick-start their European campaign with the competitions hardest team but remain confident of earning a result.
Ford believes that starting quickly will be key in winning against Toulon and so his side must take the game to the French team instead of waiting for them.
We can’t wait. We want to test ourselves against the best. We feel there’s an opportunity for us and we’re very confident.
Ford continued on to suggest that keeping the ball in play will also help his side earn a good result against Toulon because generally in France the ball is out of play much more than in England.
The ball’s in play 25 per cent less in France, so if we can keep the ball in play and play a high tempo, we think we’ve got the attacking shape to cause them problems. “We’ve talked about going and playing with courage like we did against Toulouse last season, and Montpellier, because we feel we’ve got the attacking weapons even with JJ (Jonathan Joseph) out.
Despite not being at their best, Mike Ford remains confident that the French are equally ill-prepared for the game seeing as they need to re-incorporate their internationals into their side.
Have they got us at a good time? Potentially, but we also feel that we’ve got them at a good time as well because they’ve got to integrate all of those international players back into their team. They’re brilliant individuals, but will they gel enough this weekend?
