1
It's a Bristol one-two in Gallagher Premiership monthly awards
By Jon Newcombe
Free-scoring Bristol Bears winger Gabriel Ibitoye has been named Gallagher Premiership Player of the Month for October.
Ibitoye, who was nominated along with Gloucester scrum-half Tomos Williams, Saracens No 8 Tom Willis and Leicester Tigers backrow Olly Cracknell, won just under half the public vote (48%).
Ibitoye is the Bears’ second consecutive winner after Max Malins was voted as September’s Gallagher Player of the Month.
After six rounds of the Gallagher Premiership, Ibitoye is joint top of the try-scoring charts having added four tries during October . This included a breathtaking nine-minute hat-trick in Bristol’s remarkable comeback victory over Exeter Chiefs in Derby Weekend.
The 26-year-old also ranked top for metres made in October and was among the top five players for defenders beaten, clean breaks and offloads in what was a stunning ‘highlight reel’ month for the winger, with England head coach Steve Borthwick noting his impressive form in recent interviews.
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Paddy Jackson's second season at Lyon is all but over – report
3
Borthwick, it's time to own up – Andy Goode
4
Scott Robertson responds about handling errors
5
Latest Comments
Thanks for the insight regarding top4. I previously thought only being in the top6 matters, but that makes sense you would aim for a higher rank to avoid a big name in the QF.
Go to commentsThey can do what they want, but they put too much emotion into it. Using that emotions for every little thing means that you lift your spirits for the moment but when things go bad, that same emotions drop to the boots. Especially if they are scored against. To lift those spirits higher again, requires a lot of effort. Emotional play makes you miss things on the field. It will cost you in the end. Maybe even the game.
To use a perfect example... The Bulls from South Africa in the URC reached 2 finals, and in both semi finals they played Leinster(effectively the Irish team), not their 2nd team, but all stars, and they beat them both times, once away and once at home. Those games was the Bulls finals. In the actual finals, they lost to the Stormers of SA, and Glasgow Warriors of Scotland. They put everything into those Leinster matches, knowing what would be needed, but it cost them in the finals.
Putting too much energy in silly celebrations, instead of focusing on the task at hand until the final whistle blow is what will give the other team the edge. It's why teams like the Boks and the Irish play 80 min games, not 50-60 min games. It's why they regularly wins. It's why the AB's struggle, because they have the talent, but they don't have 80 min in them yet. When a player gets tired, that's when mistakes slips in and teams like the Boks will punish you for it, even if they play bad, because they are focused. They are saving that energy for when it really matters.
That last 20 minutes is where most games are won or lost and that's where you need to dig deep. Wasting energy on silly celebrations like tackles or a ref decision etc is detrimental. Celebrating tries or points or even penalties, that is understandable. Required even to hype yourself up for about a minute or two, but then it's time to refocus.
Go to comments