Bristol aiming to make Parade a fortress

5:51am Saturday 3rd May 2008

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FORTRESS Rodney Parade - that is what Guinness Premiership team Bristol are aiming for as they make it their home over the next two seasons.

Bristol signed the deal on Thursday with Newport and the Dragons to share their ground while their own is being redeveloped.

Coach Richard Hill believes it is the best arrangement for them and it will also be a return to familiar territory for him because he coached Newport along with Leigh Jones just before top rugby in Wales went regional.

"It was my suggestion to go for Rodney Parade," admitted Hill. "Rodney Parade is the closest in terms of the type of ground it is to Bristol and the Memorial Stadium and there is a reasonable affinity between Bristolians and Newport and Gwent people.

"You can get to Newport from some parts of Bristol in only 20 minutes and as we will be playing on a Sunday there won't be much traffic with few people around.

"A few of our people have tried it and they say the beer and the food at the club are cheap, all reasonably priced and of good quality.

"We had a meeting with the supporters club on Thursday night and they were quite pumped up about it all after a director, the chief executive and myself gave a full presentation to them.

"We said we had looked at all the options, explained the whole rationale and why Newport was the best option. We have also reduced ticket prices and entry fees to offset the cost of the travelling.

"The fans were upbeat in the end and told us they could see the reasons why we had put our weight behind going to Newport."

Now Hill is looking at attracting the support of neutrals from Newport and the Gwent Valleys while also making the ground a stronghold.

"He also says their fans have given the Rodney Parade pitch the thumbs up.

"It may well be that if the Dragons are playing, say Munster away and the fans can't go then if our product is decent Welsh people will support us as well, it would be lovely if it did happen," he said.

"And then if they see a good game hopefully they will come back, that would be excellent.

"People who have been across say the pitch is immaculate, they are very impressed and say it has still got a good rugby feel to it rather than the more corporate one.

"Not a lot of teams like going to Rodney Parade which is good and should give us an advantage. The reason we are going there is it gives us the best chance of making the place a fortress.

"Gloucester was rather too nice and close to Worcester and the Midlands clubs, and it's going to be an increasingly competitive championship with Northamp-ton going up and spending millions.

"We're very grateful to Newport for helping us out and I'm looking forward to going back there after spending 18 months there."

Bristol have already arranged a development game against Newport on August 30 as a trial run for them at Rodney Parade before the serious business starts.

Here are just some of the big Guinness Premiership names neutrals from Newport and Gwent can see at Rodney Parade next season: Luke McCallister, Carl Haymans, Chris Jack, Aaron Mauger (New Zealand); Chris Latham (Australia); Butch James (South Africa); Danny Cipriani, Jonny Wilkinson, Matthew Tait, Harry Ellis, Andrew Sheridan, James Haskell (England), Sebastien Chabal (France); Martin Castrogiovanni, Marco Bortolami (Italy), Seru Rabeni (Fiji).