Jason Gilmore press conference | Northampton Saints v Harlequins

Hi Jason, how are you doing? Good, thank you very much. Yeah, just to start off with how worried were you with how quickly it kind of ran away from you on Boxing Day? Yeah, it's disappointing. We also put ourselves in the lead day just before halftime or feeling really good coming into halftime. You know, the boards are excited to get out there in the second half and we also didn't start up well, but you know, they're probably coughing up back to back tries in our mood drop pretty quickly and we also lacked a lot of execution, turned over a lot of lawn out ball and that last 25 minutes where we just couldn't build any pressure or all school board pressure back to sail and unraveled, you know, too fast for what we'd like. When you're in this situation, do you see players that, you know, have got lots more in them, just maybe just suffering from a sort of a lack of confidence because of, you know, the Bristol game before that, you know, if they start to see it going away from them, they maybe start to try and do too much individually or just start to, you know, make hasty decisions. Yeah, exactly that, like when your confidence gets rocked, your judgment tends to go out the window, not from bad intent or anything like that. It's coming from a good place, but sometimes the harder you try, the worse you can make those situations as well. And look, we had some really good meetings, yes, stay in terms of, you know, just resetting the prime for us. We've got 10 games left in the season. What we want to get out of it, you know, sports a funny thing if we can get on a, get on a little bit of a roll still, you know, can we challenge and worry some teams, which I think we definitely can, but, you know, at the moment, we just want to make sure we get our football back on the field without worrying about the opposition too much at the moment. Of course, you're in a decent position in the Champions Cup, and that's a huge thing to fight for as well. And we've seen in seasons past that, you know, even Northampton last season, you know, the title defence wasn't going so well, but then in Europe, they were unbelievable. So you can have that kind of flip side to it. Yeah, there's a blueprint there, isn't there, particularly last year with Northampton, they did really well through Europe. It's probably the two things for us, Europe where we're definitely in a big game in two weeks, against stormers at home at the stoop, but we still want to push us hard as we can in the prime. Also, we start that this week against Northampton, so that'll be a good test for us. They were absolutely unbelievable, weren't they at the weekend up at the wreck. So I think everyone will be thinking that this is an incredibly tough game for you. Yeah, it will be. And look, maybe the pressure is off us a little bit in terms of the expectation there, which, you know, we want to double down on what we're good at, particularly with our attack across the next month of our football as well. So look, if we can just release the shackles a little bit, particularly with mindset and confidence, and look, go and have a swing at them this weekend. I think the big thing is not getting caught up in Northampton, they're also playing really well at the moment. They're a great football team, but we just got to worry about putting our game on the field against them. So that's our big focus for this week. They've got some unbelievable individuals, though. Obviously, they have a great way of playing, but they have some x-factor players that you'll have to keep alert on somehow. Yeah, and they're all in good form, aren't they? They've got the England, you know, 910 with Mitchell and Smith, Dingle Hutchinson, are really crafty players, but up front, you know, they've got some tough, tough forwards in their cars and Camini and the likes as well. So, yeah, look, they're a good football team. They've got great individuals. They've been building their program now for three or four years in a really positive manner. So, yeah, they're going to be a tough game this weekend. Are you kind of at the moment of the seal? Do you have every research on them, but are you sort of looking very much more inwardly to say let's put our rugby on the pitch, as you say? Yeah, definitely, because if we start getting, like we know, we know we're known with him during a good team, we know that they've got good football players and look, you've got to prep and preview the opposition, definitely, but right now where we are, we can't get caught up on too much of what oppositions are and players and that type of thing. We'll do a little bit of work on that, but the most important thing for us at the moment is getting back to Ben Queen's. And how difficult is it to know when to kind of push the buttons with your players as a coach? I mean, in the past, I'm sure you've had situations like this where is it more helpful to cajole them back to playing the sort of football they can or is it more that sometimes you do have to kind of have some home truths? Yeah, definitely both. And I think if you look at us last couple of weeks, the home truths are, is when we're on the back foot, we've got to fight. And I'm not doubting that the boys don't care and they're not trying, but when you're on the back foot, you have to go up another level with your fight. You just kind of can't dip you toe into, we're trying, you've generally got to make an effort across the next 10, 15-minute period to get yourself. So that's definitely a home truth for all of us. That's coaches and stuff and plays and that as well in terms of how we trigger it. The cajole and building the confidence is our game at the moment. Look, we scored 100 points in two weeks in the Champions Cup, which was excellent, but if we're honest with ourselves across the year, we're probably haven't scored the points consistently that we've wanted to. So in terms of releasing the shackles a little bit, we're definitely going to put more time into that attack and get that humming because when we're at our best and the boys are feeling good, it's with ball in hand. So that would be that component of the confidence. And just finally for me, when you're having the meetings with the players, are you feeling that anger within them? They're kind of not getting what they should, you know, I imagine what they feel they deserve this season? Yeah, not anger, probably more frustration because they're putting a lot of effort in like the preparation through the week and what they do every training session and that type of thing has been at a good level. The thing for them is probably when we don't convert territory with how we know we can, that leads to frustration. Defensively, we've got to make sure that we can back up our areas otherwise that leads to frustration. You know, I set peace on the weekend, that last 25 minutes, that leads to frustration because we can't get the ball into our hands and show what we can do. So that would be the overriding emotion at the moment. So it's just important that we frame it right, take the frustration out of it, but that's going to come with more time that we're going to spend in the right areas. Thanks for your time Jason. Good luck. Thanks, and excuse me. Cheers. Hi Jason. How are you? Good mate, soft George. Good, thank you. I was just wondering, so you mentioned just now that you kind of the confidence was quite a big thing of the attack. Is that kind of maybe one of the key issues, you think, going forward to kind of release the attack or is there maybe a bit more a deeper lighting issue over there? No, I think if you look at Halakun's in general, like we're known for that attacking game and that is something that we want to make sure that we get back because that that's what we're known for and that's what our supporters love to come and watch and that's how our boys like to play. The other thing that does is it collects bonus points as well. So if you look at us at the moment, we haven't collected a lot of four point bonus points and we haven't collected a lot of if we lose the seven point bonus point, which our defence needs to tame up there as well. It's just not the attack, but I think if we can get the attack humming and get that ball flowing a little bit more again, we want to climb the ladder. If we want to climb the ladder to where we want to get to, bonus points are going to be crucial, so that's where that attack will fit into it. Perfect, thank you. Also, I just want to mention Jack Walker and Caden Murley. I think they came off with HIA's last weekend. It's wondering how they are got up for that. They've got to go through their protocols this week at the moment, so look, they're in a training and that type of thing, but we'll find that out later this afternoon. Thank you. And then finally, one for me, you kind of mentioned post-sale that the Prem was a bit of a not right off, but maybe less kind of into that. Is that kind of maybe hinting towards you might give some of the younger players a bit more of a go in the Prem this year? Yeah, I've probably got to get my messaging rod on that to be fair as well. We also got 10 games left in the Prem. We're probably at a stretch, if I'm honest, but we're definitely kind to roll the sleeves up and get stuck in and see how high we can finish. Now, with that, whether it's young boys or guys that are performing well in the champut line clubs and that type of stuff, we certainly want to be giving access to players that are demonstrating the right behaviour for it. Now, that doesn't mean we're just going to go on my whole-sale changes and all the young boys are going to go up because that's not going to get us anywhere. Like I said, 14 days ago, we'd come off a pretty good two-week performance and in the lense during and then at bay on. So, yeah, the results have been disappointing, but if you ask me that two weeks ago, we're probably having a different conversation. So definitely back the boys, but we're going to be rewarding the and the behaviour that we want. Cool. Thank you. That's all for me. Thank you.