This is Bath -- Captain Stuart Hooper has urged his Bath Rugby team-mates to forget about the occasion and instead just focus on the game when Stade Francais visit in the Amlin Cup quarter-finals this weekend. The 31-year-old lock says thinking about anything beyond an 80-minute battle against the Parisian visitors could have disastrous consequences at The Rec. "I've tried to tell the players that the occasion is for other people," said Hooper, who believes home advantage can play a key part this weekend. "You'll look back and, hopefully, enjoy it if you win but the occasion is a result of how you perform. "So we will look at trying to get our individual roles right and then the magnitude of the occasion will take care of itself. "You make sure your role and preparation is done the same. We've done a lot of preparation – the same as we would for any other team. "As much as these are big occasions for the club and the players, what you need to do within that is make sure you focus on your role and make sure your role is the same as what it would be against Stade in a European quarter-final or London Welsh in the Premiership or whatever. "You look around and a lot of the clubs now have got nothing this weekend but we are here and preparing for a European quarter-final against one of the biggest clubs in Europe over the years. "Everyone is really excited about it and itching to get out there in front of the home support, which should be awesome. "We haven't got the results we want on the road for various reasons but we love playing at home and it's really important to us that the supporters keep turning up and keep supporting us. "I am sure for a quarter-final of this magnitude there will be a bumper crowd there and it will be pretty noisy too." Bath have suffered disappointment in the knockout stages of one competition already this season, losing 31-23 in the semi-finals of the LV= Cup at Harlequins. Hooper says his team have learned their lessons from The Stoop in order to avoid falling to the same fate. "That game is well and truly behind us now. We just didn't perform as individuals and it cost us really dearly," said Hooper. "One of the strange things to come out of a defeat like that is that you can work out where it went wrong. "As frustrating as it is, if it's things that you've done which have brought about your downfall, it's easier to fix than things the opposition have done well. "We're obviously really disappointed about it, and it will haunt us for a while, but we've put it behind us and are looking to put in a good performance against Stade."
Reported by This is 4 hours ago.
This is Bath -- Captain Stuart Hooper has urged his Bath Rugby team-mates to forget about the occasion and instead just focus on the game when Stade Francais visit in the Amlin Cup quarter-finals this weekend. The 31-year-old lock says thinking about anything beyond an 80-minute battle against the Parisian visitors could have disastrous consequences at The Rec. "I've tried to tell the players that the occasion is for other people," said Hooper, who believes home advantage can play a key part this weekend. "You'll look back and, hopefully, enjoy it if you win but the occasion is a result of how you perform. "So we will look at trying to get our individual roles right and then the magnitude of the occasion will take care of itself. "You make sure your role and preparation is done the same. We've done a lot of preparation – the same as we would for any other team. "As much as these are big occasions for the club and the players, what you need to do within that is make sure you focus on your role and make sure your role is the same as what it would be against Stade in a European quarter-final or London Welsh in the Premiership or whatever. "You look around and a lot of the clubs now have got nothing this weekend but we are here and preparing for a European quarter-final against one of the biggest clubs in Europe over the years. "Everyone is really excited about it and itching to get out there in front of the home support, which should be awesome. "We haven't got the results we want on the road for various reasons but we love playing at home and it's really important to us that the supporters keep turning up and keep supporting us. "I am sure for a quarter-final of this magnitude there will be a bumper crowd there and it will be pretty noisy too." Bath have suffered disappointment in the knockout stages of one competition already this season, losing 31-23 in the semi-finals of the LV= Cup at Harlequins. Hooper says his team have learned their lessons from The Stoop in order to avoid falling to the same fate. "That game is well and truly behind us now. We just didn't perform as individuals and it cost us really dearly," said Hooper. "One of the strange things to come out of a defeat like that is that you can work out where it went wrong. "As frustrating as it is, if it's things that you've done which have brought about your downfall, it's easier to fix than things the opposition have done well. "We're obviously really disappointed about it, and it will haunt us for a while, but we've put it behind us and are looking to put in a good performance against Stade."
Reported by This is 4 hours ago.