That was the message from Guernsey director of rugby Jordan Reynolds, whose side face Canterbury this weekend in a battle of eighth against seventh in National Two East.
Raiders have enjoyed a week off since their 42-17 defeat at London Welsh, which ended their seven-match unbeaten run, but the head coach reported that they will still be low on numbers as they return to action.
‘Ciaran McGann trained with us on Tuesday night, so it looks like he will be back which is a positive, and from the others who missed last week, Cal Roberts will be back in the squad,’ Reynolds said.
‘On the other side of things, we have lost Tom Ceillam to an ankle injury and Joe Wrafter to a shoulder problem while Sam Boyland will be out for the next couple of games at least, so we are still missing more than a few, a couple more than we were at London Welsh, but we are still not creating excuses around that.
‘The thing that let us down against Welsh was we used it as an opportunity to underperform and on reflection – and as a group we have talked about this – we know we are better than that, so we want to put in a bigger performance this week and try to climb back to how we should be performing.
‘There are parts that have been missing in our last couple of away games and in these away games at the moment we are allowing too much to obstruct us. Sometimes you just need to tough it out.’
Canterbury, who are just two points below Raiders, are an excellent example of how competitive virtually every side in the league has been this campaign.
They have won six and lost five of their 11 fixtures, but in those defeats they have pushed some of the top sides very close.
‘Canterbury are always a strong side and are very difficult to beat at home, but the reality is you do not have to be perfect to win games in this league, but you have got to be willing to challenge sides for 80 minutes,’ Reynolds said.
‘If something is not going right in certain facets of your game, there are other areas in which you can excel and our Achilles’ heel at the moment is when we have already resigned ourselves to facing bigger challenges with injuries, we are probably not giving maximum effort in other areas.
‘That’s why all these sides are competing and making it very difficult for other teams. We have to do the same and make it tough for the opposition.
‘From our past experiences of playing Canterbury, you might say they are more forward-orientated, but they seem to have a pretty well-balanced side at the moment. They are one of the sides who want to challenge in the outside channels and are prepared to shift the ball around.
‘But their biggest asset is that they are a settled squad, so when it comes down to cohesion, they have got it in spades.’
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