LAUNCESTON joint head coach Ian Goldsmith wants to see better discipline and ball retention when the All Blacks return to Regional One South West action on Saturday with a home game against bottom side Weston-super-Mare (3pm).

The Cornishmen were left frustrated at the weekend as their clash with Exmouth was postponed due to a frozen pitch at Polson Bridge, particularly as they looked to bounce back from successive defeats at Devonport Services (28-18) and Brixham (46-31).

Goldsmith told the Post: “It was as frustrating for us as it was Exmouth.

“It was about midday that it was called off, and although normally it’s by the stand where it doesn’t thaw, this time it was most of the pitch.

“We looked at playing it on one of the lower pitches, but they were also frozen, and also Exmouth offered to swap the fixture, but by the time that was put to us, it was a bit late.”

Only two of the six scheduled games were played due to the temperatures – the bottom of the table clash between Ivybridge and Weston-super-Mare that the hosts edged, and promotion hopefuls Barnstaple’s 15-8 success at St Austell.

Goldsmith said: “Barnstaple only scraped through at St Austell on Saturday and didn’t pick up a bonus point which is a good thing, but they are top of the table now, so I’m sure they’re happy.”

Going into this weekend, Launceston sit nicely in fourth after ten games, and will back themselves to pick up an eighth win of the season against a Weston side that have just a solitary victory to their name.

However, they have started scoring more points in recent weeks in narrow defeats to St Austell and Ivybridge, and boast a fearsome scrum.

Goldsmith, however, is more concerned with his own team.

He said: “The first thing we need to do is make sure we put in a decent showing from the start of the game, and then we can think about picking up the extra bonus point later on.

“One slight positive about Saturday being called off is that the pitch won’t have deteriorated, which hopefully allows us not to get involved in a mud wrestle against Weston.

“Everyone knows what their strengths are, which is their scrum, and it looks like they’ve signed a back-rower – Jay Davis – who has been scoring tries for fun, so for us it’s a case of making sure our discipline is bang on, which it hasn’t been for the last couple of games, and making sure we look after the ball.

“There were 16 turnovers against us in the first 60 minutes at Brixham which was ultimately our undoing.”

Weston have a big pack, and Goldsmith wants to move them around.

He said: “We’ll try to keep the ball in play as much as possible and keep finding grass with our kicking as opposed to the touchline to minimise the amount of their set pieces.

“As I alluded to earlier, we need better discipline and to look after the ball better.

“They were the areas we looked at last week leading into Exmouth, and that won’t change this week.”

Goldsmith and fellow joint head coach Ryan Westren made five changes from the Brixham defeat for the Exmouth clash as Leion Cole, George Bone, Glenn Coles, Cam Fogden and Ollie Bebbington all returned.

Goldsmith added: “No-one has picked up any injuries or illness that we know of, so I can’t imagine it’ll be too dissimilar to the team named for the Exmouth game.”