THORNBURY head coach Tom Luke believes his side are ‘heading in the right direction’ as they end their first block of six Tribute South West One West matches.

Thornbury go into a weekend break in fourth place in the table having won three and lost three, the latest being a 17-14 reverse at home to Newent last Saturday.

And he believes a bit more accuracy in their game will help them push towards the top end of the table which is currently occupied by leaders Exeter University, who look unstoppable already with a perfect record of six wins, six try bonus points and thirty points.

It was not going to be an easy campaign for a Thornbury outfit which is re-shaping themselves with new blood, and Luke praised the youngsters who have stepped into the breach this season.

The coach said: “The season is going ok. We have shown some really promising signs without achieving our potential so far.

“We have been in every game and, up until last weekend, we had scored four tries in every match.”

The defeat to ninth-placed Newent on Saturday, though, was not that good, but Luke took his side out for some team bonding on Tuesday evening to get back on track and will be doing the same tonight before they return to the business of preparing to face Cullompton, a place below them in the table, on Saturday week.

Luke said: “There are a lot of positives within the squad and we are heading in the right direction. It was disappointing last weekend because there were plenty of opportunities to win the game and, if we had gone two scores ahead, we would have won it at a canter.

“But Newent stayed in the game and we didn’t respect the ball enough. That was disappointing as it would have been nice to end this block of games on a high.”

And the coach added: “The young players are doing fantastically well. They not only look like first teamers but good first teamers. They have come in and gelled with the other boys really well.”

Luke is, though, aware that Thornbury need to bounce back on Saturday week, adding: “Cullompton have come up and are doing well.

“It’s a bit different this year because there doesn’t seem to be a soft touch in the league so we won’t be getting ahead of ourselves.”