Isaac Mourier: Leeds Force aiming to learn lessons of loss to London

Everything was good, then suddenly that change of momentum happened, and we collapsed - it’s hard to explain and difficult to come back from as a team when something like that happens.

Ultimately, it comes down to frustration on the court – players get frustrated with themselves and their team-mates, and that leads to lapses in concentration which causes mistakes. It’s hard for anyone to stay motivated when you’re facing a 20-point deficit.

When you’re losing, pointing the finger can be easy – a more sensible approach is to realise we need to be tougher, hold ourselves accountable and come back stronger.

Having the right attitude and preparing yourself mentally as a professional athlete before a game is pivotal – if you go out on the court with the wrong approach and no intention of winning, then you’re already beaten.

Of course, going into a game with the right attitude doesn’t guarantee results either, but by thinking positively you give yourself the opportunity to win and that’s vitally important.

London – our next opponents – are in a great position right now, they’ve hit their form and have a great roster with a working system under coach Vince Macaulay. We had 27 turnovers against them a few weeks ago, that’s not acceptable and it’s up to us to learn our lessons from that defeat and apply those lessons on the court on Friday.

If we can keep them under 85 points, then we have a chance of winning. There’s small goals that we’ve set for ourselves that we need to achieve – limiting turnovers is one of them because we’re beating ourselves right now. We’re our own worst enemy at the minute and that needs to change quickly.

If we fight until the very end, then I’m sure we can win games before the season is over, we just need to make sure we leave everything on the court.

It’s been a long and tough year, and we’ve been through a lot both as a group and as individuals – just surviving the year is a triumph for us, and now it’s about moving forward and making sure this doesn’t happen next year.

If the right team is recruited, and we have a chance to mesh during the summer, then there’s no doubting we’ll be competitive next season.

Leeds Force shouldn’t be anywhere near the bottom – we just have to ensure that we go into next year with good structure and better consistency. If we have the right guys to do the job, then we’ll be right there fighting with the rest of the league.

I’ve been watching our national teams’ progress at the Commonwealth Games in Australia, and honestly I think England have underachieved, whereas Scotland are doing a wonderful job.

They beat Nigeria to reach the semi-finals and their coach Rob Beveridge is doing a great job considering he was only just appointed last month.

The England men’s team will be disappointed about their loss against Canada – especially since they recently beat them in a scrimmage, so they’ll be kicking themselves about that.

With England out, it looks like I’ll be rooting for Scotland for the rest of the tournament so I hope they go all the way.

That’s it for this week’s column, thanks for reading and we hope you can make it down to Carnegie Sports Arena on Friday (7:30PM) as we go for the win against London Lions.

Interview: Seb Gigner