Your Total Guide To sport

Swindon Robins rider Nick Morris left annoyed at himself following Australia's World Cup defeat

Following Saturday evenings British victory at the Speedway World Cup semi-final, Total Sport's Ryan Walker spoke to Australian ace and Swindon Robins rider Nick Morris to get his reaction on his team's performance.

Finishing nine points behind Team GB on the night made for a tough evening of racing for the Australian side and Morris admitted things didn’t go to plan for his side.

“It didn’t go to plan for myself tonight," Morris said.

“I didn’t feel too good on the bike and to be fair the Brits stuck it on is tonight and they were better than us.

“I’m annoyed at myself more than anything though, I was feeling great before I had my crash at Peterborough and then not be coming into the World Cup without full confidence was hard.”

Suffering a nasty crash whilst racing for Championship side Berwick away at Peterborough shortly before the World Cup, Morris agreed that his confidence levels on the night played a big part in his performance.

“I didn’t feel as confident on the bike really, but that was always bound to happen after being knocked unconscious in that big crash.

“I feel fine in myself during the day but when you get on the bike it’s a bit different but I’ll be ready come the race off."

With the race-off in Poland on Friday evening now the only route to the grand final for the Australian team, Morris agreed it wasn’t the ideal situation but explained how his team could benefit from getting two days of successive racing should Australia reach the final.

“That’s the way we have to look at it with the race-off and then the final.

“We’ll go to Poland give it everything we’ve got and then it’s all to play for in the final.

“The boys have got a lot of experience of racing in Poland and that will be extremely useful to all of us.”

The absence of Jason Doyle on Saturday evening saw the rest of the Australia team struggle to score the big points required, and Morris agreed that his club teammate was a big miss.

“We tried to go about things as we always would even without Doyley in the team.

“Our goal was to win but obviously it was going to be even harder a task without Doyley racing for us. He’s been riding amazing at the moment and it would of taken some of the pressure off of the rest of us had he been able to race.

“At the end of the day the British riders we’re better than us and they would of taken some stopping.”