Bristol Fail Against 14 Man Irish

Unusually this game saw beautiful spring weather instead of the recent monsoon-like conditions that have dogged Bristol’s recent matches.  However, the gusty wind blowing down the pitch from the Clubhouse end proved significant, particularly in the first half.  The game itself commenced in familiar style with some frenetic and poorly structured play.  Irish took advantage of the wind to test out the Bristol defence in its 22.  Bristol opted to use the massive boot of Lee Robinson to try to make some ground from theses defensive situations.  I for one have advocated using Robinson’s range (if not accuracy) in the past.  Sadly, the evidence from this experiment is far from clear, he missed touch with his first effort (although it certainly went a fair distance) and then saw his second attempt charged down.  Fortunately the Bristol defence was well able to deal with consequences.

Kicking seemed to dominate these early exchanges and Everitt sent a cross-field kick intended for the speeding Ojo.  This utterly wrong footed the Bristol defence and looked to have sent Ojo clear but he failed to hold onto the ball and Bristol were lucky to have the scrum.  Bristol held onto possession for a time and probed away at the Irish defensive line.  All too often promising moves came to a halt with knock-ons and wayward passing, which enabled Everitt, in particular, to send Bristol back into their own half and have to build territory afresh.  At one lineout, with 13 minutes gone, Bristol’s challenge was, at best, clumsy and a penalty was awarded.  Everitt was deadly accurate to get the first points on the board: 0 – 3.  Bristol had the chance to strike back quickly when Bristol took the restart and Neil Brew made a good break before the scrambling defence managed to haul him down.  Sadly Bristol conceded the penalty and the chance was gone.  Midway through the half Everitt increased the visitors' lead with a penalty from way out on the right touchline and it was 0 - 6. They missed the opportunity to go further ahead when former Bristol scrum-half Hodgson sent the ball down into the corner with an acrobatic overhead kick.  Irish seized the lineout ball but were then penalised in front of the posts.  All the real pressure was from the Exiles and Bristol had another escape when Everitt failed with a drop-goal attempt following a neat break from Flutey (who was named as Richard Flutey by the announcer; I’ve only ever heard him called Riki).

Robinson then had a chance to use his strength and pace and he was able to set David Lemi loose on a run that brought a roar from the crowd, but sadly no points.  Good work from the pack gave Rob Higgitt the flicker of a chance as he briefly fashioned a hole in the defence, but a penalty was swiftly awarded as he held onto the ball for a fraction too long in the tackle.  With half time looming Irish went on another attack with Bristol striving to hold them out.  Everitt, attempting to create some space out wide, flung out a looping pass that was read superbly by Lemi.  He latched on to the ball and raced in under the posts from a good 60 metres; harried by Armitage and Ojo.  The try was Lemi’s, the conversion was Jason Strange’s and Bristol had a lead of 7 – 6.  Bristol held on to the ball from the restart until the last few seconds of the half ticked away.

The second half started well for Bristol as Brian O’Riordan pressured Hodgson as he attempted to get the ball away from a struggling Irish scrum.  O’Riordan scuffed the ball downfield and as it bobbled along the ground he knocked on as he attempted to gather the ball.  Bristol were getting on the wrong side of the referee and Everitt had the chance to put the ball into the corner.  Bristol defended the lineout well.  Lemi was prominent as he tackled an Irish player into touch, an action that appeared to cause Armitage some irritation.  It was a minor incident that may have had graver consequences a little later.  Some 15 minutes into the half the touch judges flag was raised to indicate foul play and the crowd over that side sounded incensed.  I couldn’t see anything of what occurred but the upshot was a straight red card for Armitage and a yellow for Robinson.

With both sides reduced, temporarily at least, to 14 men; play continued to be aggressively contested, but with neither side looking able to fashion any clear cut scoring opportunities.  Bristol though were penalised at a maul and it was Flutey’s chance to take Irish into a narrow 7 – 9 lead.  Bristol made some replacements in the front row and the fresh legs soon made their presence felt with a powerful rolling maul from Bristol that ate up the metres and defenders.  O’Riordan slipped the ball out to Strange close to the corner, who made a few metres before stepping slightly back infield as he attempted to beat the last two defenders, he was well marshalled and held out just short of the line.  I had a good view of this and think he should have held his line and kept going, the worst that could have happened was that he were forced into touch.  From the ruck Nathan Budgett jinked and was forced over the try line but the ball was held up.  At the five metre scrum Bristol were awarded a free kick that Andrew Blowers took quickly and he also went over the line, also to be clearly held up.  If you want crumbs of comfort you could argue that he was tackled by players who were in front of the try line and therefore must have been closer than 10 metres.  In any event it was Bristol’s scrum but inexplicably the referee awarded the free kick to Irish.

With Bristol back to a full complement it was surely, although time was short, just a matter of holding onto possession and going through the phases.  Instead it was Irish who frustrated the home side.  When Bristol had the ball they lacked penetration and direction, holding on to the ball, yes, but only going from one side of the pitch to the other and failing to get into scoring range.  The final blow came when Blowers was harshly penalised for holding on to the ball an instant too long (particularly when there had appeared to be several instances earlier of Irish players holding on for even longer).  Flutey was again accurate with his kick and the Irish lead was extended to 7 – 12.  Bristol tried to break through the suffocating defence and for an instant it appeared that Higgitt had set Lemi free with a long pass but it was called forward.  The last seconds saw Irish hang on to the ball and Bristol’s last hope was that they would with the clock behind them fail to realise that time was up.  It was a forlorn hope and Bristol’s undefeated home record was gone.

A disappointing performance from Bristol with some poor decision-making and a lack of any real penetration except from the livewire David Lemi.  In the last three or four matches we have surely conceded more penalties than we did for the first half of the season and this lack of discipline is costing us.  I know it appeared that the referee was a bit one sided , particularly in the first half when London Irish appeared constantly a metre offside without being picked up, but it is surely clear that we have started to give away a lot of points as a consequence of infringements.  Additionally our once solid set-piece has become increasingly unreliable with every hooker failing to hit the jumper and the scrum ceasing to be utterly dominant.  Clearly injuries have caused disruption but surely Dan Ward-Smith didn’t make all that difference?  It still looks likely that we can finish in the top four particularly given Saracens loss to Newcastle, but things are lot less comfortable than they appeared just a few weeks ago.  Fortunately we aren’t in the position of Worcester or Northampton, so I suppose this is a nice sort of tension to have.