SOMETIMES it’s easy to be negative after a result like we had against Yorkshire Carnegie last weekend but we won the match 39-26 and the club is in a good space.

We tested out a few combinations and I am sure there will be a few different combinations this weekend before we play Bristol in our final match of the regular season.

We started off superbly against Yorkshire and, during the lead up to the match, we put a lot of emphasis on our first 20 minutes.

We nailed it perfectly and scored three tries, including one in the third minute from Sam Smith, who was excellent at our restarts.

There was a swing in the game with discipline and we were a bit unlucky in one maul but that happens, although it occurs more often in the Championship than it does in the Premiership.

Yorkshire had a few opportunities and played really well in the middle 20 minutes just before half-time and after the interval.

I think we came back pretty well, especially the try straight from the kick-off which stemmed from a fine catch by Smith.

There were load of tries and, from a watching point of view, I am sure it was exciting. But from our point of view it wasn’t great and we had a lapse in concentration where our standards just dropped a little bit. That does happen with a younger team but it’s how quickly we can turn it around.

We played Yorkshire after Christmas and they gave us a bit of a headache at Headingley. They did the same thing at Sixways. They had nothing to lose and threw the ball around in the lovely, sunny weather and I think the firm ground suited them.

We have got very high standards and the fact we gave away too many penalties at scrum-time didn’t help. The scrum is normally an attacking set-piece for us and we could not get the dominance. Whether that was down to personnel or whether Yorkshire were just very good, we will find out.

We have had a normal week — we haven’t had to change our shop because of one disappointing weekend. We’ve had a good week and it has been fun to be outside in the sunshine.

We travel to Cornish Pirates on Saturday — they are a big, physical team and their scrum and set-piece is very good and they score a lot of mauling tries.

Pirates are a patient side who wait for you to make errors or give them field position and it will be a true test away from home.

We know that Bristol are on the horizon but we are not thinking too far head. The fixture against Bristol is a bit of a dead rubber because we have both qualified for the play-offs. But I am sure the fans will be turning out in force.