Top four finish is our goal Randall

HARRY Randall feels Bristol Bears can go one step further this year and secure a play-off place which may put the scrumhalf into the fold for further England honours.

- BEN JAYCOCK

Randall, 26, was a standout performer in Bristol’s opening night 24-3 victory at Newcastle Falcons, earning plaudits for his electric tap and go’s and game management.

However, Bristol’s forwards were making a mess of the breakdown failing to give Randall clean ball and the ninetime England No. 9 hopes they can touch up that area to provide him with a better platform to work with.

He said: “The breakdown wasn’t the cleanest and it’s something we’ve reviewed to work on. Hopefully we can put that right in future weeks. Things weren’t going for us in the first half and credit to the messages we got at half time from players and coaches, saying there’s nothing we had to worry about or change necessarily, we just needed to knuckle down. We scored early in the second half which put us at ease.

“We’ve been working on playing at speed and if we can get that breakdown right it’ll allow us to play at a high pace utilising our quick ball. When we got it right on Friday it really caused problems for them.