McAvoy keen to increase intensity as Blues lose at Bournemouth

Newbury Blues head coach James McAvoy described his side’s loss away to Bournemouth on Saturday as “frustrating”.

Blues, who sit third from bottom, lost 78-0 to their promotion chasing hosts on a tough afternoon in West Parley.

It was Blues’ first match of 2025, after matches against Farnham and Chobham were frozen off this month.

For McAvoy, the defeat came as something of a surprise, following some good displays in training so far this year.

“All the boys and staff would say that the last two weeks of training have been some of the most positive we’ve had,” he said.

“We’ve put more emphasis on some parts of our defensive systems than we had previously.

“So it’s been an interesting one to reflect on.

“It’s not a systemic issue, we’re not seeing this week in, week out.”

Some may wonder if the two postponements left Blues slightly rusty, a point which McAvoy addressed.

“You could put it down to us having a couple of games delayed,” he said.

“The other coaches and I need to reflect on how much physical contact we’ve done in training, and what we’ve missed.

“Because we didn’t turn up physically.”

“It was frustrating.”

Blues now travel to top of the league Farnham on Saturday, with McAvoy tailoring training accordingly.

“Sometimes you need games like this for individuals to start increasing their work rate,” he said.

“Those top three teams get that physicality right… they make very few errors.

“Our physicality fluctuates.

“When we get it right, we can live up there, but when we get it wrong it ends up like that.

“It’s a unique sport… we can’t go out on a Tuesday and play full contact in training.

“You’ve got to be smart in increasing that intensity.

“When do players get the opportunity to experience that?”

McAvoy himself came on as a sub in the 35th minute, giving him a hands on look.

“It was interesting to play myself for sixty minutes,” he said.

“To see it from the pitch, especially from full-back, there’s definitely some areas we can look at from a coaching perspective.

“It was just bloke versus bloke, I’m running hard, are you going to stop me?

“And we just went, ‘no’.”