Cherry (& Whites) On Top

By Ian Todd
April 29 2007

Gloucester ran in four tries to win their 'home' derby match and finish at the top of the Guinness Premiership. Bristol, who led the table for much of the season, had their best ever league finish with third place. Bristol now face Leicester in the semi final of the Guiness Pay-Offs

Unusually for a match started by David Hill the conditions were bright and warm. The game started poorly for Bristol when Shaun Perry launched a box kick from an early maul/ruck which made hardly any distance before reaching touch and kept Bristol under pressure. Indeed he seemed determined to kick possession away throughout much of the game (especially in the first half) and rarely to good effect. Fortunately, this time the Gloucester lineout throw was miles off to give Bristol a scrum. Bristol were able to break downfield with Lee Robinson and Sam Cox troubling the defence. However, as Bristol looked to get the ball away from the tackle Forrester sustained what looked a nasty leg injury and was taken from the field after several minutes delay. Bristol had lost their momentum and Gloucester were able to hoof the ball back into the Bristol half. David Lemi caught the ball and attempted to jink his way past the chasing Gloucester players. His dummy kick fooled no one and he was brought to the ground with the Bristol support still some way off, and it was no surprise that a penalty went to Gloucester as he held on to the ball. I know his first instinct is to run but it would probably have been better if he actually had kicked rather than trying to find a way past. Walker made no mistake and it was an early 3 – 0 lead. Bristol probed away at the defence but lacked the ability to either fashion an overlap or over commit the defenders. Eventually the error came when Perry again kicked poorly and Gloucester were ably to capitalise by driving close to the Bristol line before a knock-on let Bristol off. The pressure was on Bristol though and another penalty was the result. Walker made light work of it and Gloucester led 6 – 0 as the first quarter drew to a close. Rather against the run of play Bristol were then awarded a penalty just inside the Gloucester half and Hill stuck a fine kick, unlike his normal style, to narrow the gap to 6 – 3. Play now seemed to break down into a scrappy series of errors and penalties, with Bristol incurring the referee’s ire at the ruck. Inevitably a penalty was given in kickable range and Walker obliged to put Gloucester 9 – 3 up. Gloucester then launched an up and under that Luke Arscott struggled to deal with. It was Gloucester who came away with the ball but the move came to a shuddering halt as Brian Lima welcomed Simpson-Daniel in typically robust fashion. The Gloucester player could do little other than hang onto the ball and give the penalty to Bristol. The relief was short-lived and Lamb made a good break through the Bristol midfield defence. He set former Bristol favourite Alex Brown free and he, in turn, sent out a neat pass to Walker who went over for the try. He actually went very close to the dead ball line before dotting the ball down. I don’t think he went over it, but it might be worth a look on the replay. Surprisingly he was well wide with the conversion attempt but still Gloucester held a 14 – 3 lead with nearly half an hour played. Bristol need to get something back in the next ten minutes and they did so with a piece individual skill (and luck) from Lemi. The ball was worked left from contact and into the hands of the winger who had come infield looking for the ball. Confronted by a well-marshalled defensive line he precisely chipped over the defenders off the outside of his boot. He sprinted through, gathered the ball as it bounced fortuitously into his grasp and outpaced Walker to go in at he corner. Hill was off target with the difficult conversion attempt but Bristol were right back in it at 14 – 8. Given that Bristol had scarcely troubled the Gloucester 22, if Bristol could make it to half time with that score it would be a positive result. Unfortunately Bristol then contrived to throw away the fruits of Lemi’s work. Gloucester sent a speculative kick down into the Bristol half. It was well taken by Robinson who launched what looked a rubbish pass in the general direction of Andrew Blowers neck (I’m no too clear on this as the red girder of the Williams Stand obscured my view at this point, they’ve got a cheek charging what the did for ‘seats’ in this area). All too often when Robinson takes the ball in similar situations he makes a short run and then passes inside. Why doesn’t he just use his size and strength to run through the defence and set up the ball? I assume it is something he has been coached to do, but I’m not clear on the reason. Let’s be clear I’m not one of the ‘Lee Robinson is a useless lump’ school of thought, I just find it frustrating that when he takes the ball in space his first approach is to offload the ball. In any event, this time it went utterly wrong and the ball ended up with Gloucester’s Allen who set Foster free to coast over untouched. Walker converted and it was 21 -8. However it was Bristol who had the last word in the half when the got hold of the ball after the restart and Perry made a fine break down the right wing after a quickly taken tap caught the Gloucester defence unawares. He was halted just a few metres out as the defenders tried to force him into touch. The Bristol pack arrived but was unable to force a way through the quickly reorganised defence. The second half got underway with a kick that failed to go ten metres. However, when the ball made its way out to Balshaw, he ran away from his support and conceded a penalty for holding on. Hill was unable to make the kick count. Gloucester made a long drop-out but Perry, eschewing the kicking option, made a searing break right through the Gloucester defence, eventually ending up on the right wing before a last-ditch tackle from his England rival, Richards, brought him to a stop. Bristol then charged down an attempted clearance, but the ball bounced unkindly and gave the advantage to Gloucester. The long clearing kick from Arscott then bounced agonisingly along the touchline before irritatingly going dead. The referee also missed a glaringly obvious accidental offside as a Gloucester player ran straight into one of his team-mates. Gloucester were ruthless in exploiting their good fortune. As the scrum wheeled, Boer picked up, used the referee as a shield and trotted through a completely misaligned Bristol ‘defence’ to score without a Bristol player even attempting to get close. Walker converted and Gloucester looked out of sight at 28 – 8. Bristol would need to score twenty unanswered points to even get the draw. For a while it looked as if Bristol would have a go. Gloucester were put under pressure and Lamb attempted to outflank the Bristol attackers by launching a long pass out to the wing. Instead it bounced awkwardly loose and Roy Winters latched on to it and was able to pop up the ball to Lima who had the strength and pace to break the tackles and go over by the posts. Hill was wide of the target with the relatively easy conversion attempt, but Bristol had closed the gap to 28 -13 with half an hour still to play. Bristol made several replacements in an effort to revitalise their challenge, but instead it was Gloucester who again took their chances with a pitiless efficiency. Allen made a nice break and popped the ball up for the supporting Richards who looked odds on to score before Joe El Abd just managed to drag him down. It was to no avail as Richards was able to offload out of the tackle to the following Hazell who went over to score. The conversion was duly made to take Gloucester to an impressive 35 – 13 lead. Bristol showed spirit and no little skill as they launched perhaps the best move of the match with the forwards taking the ball on before it went down the line with every back making ground before passing. The ball ended up with Robinson out on the right wing and this time he did make use of his size and speed to power past and through numerous defenders before eventually being dragged to the ground by several tacklers. Sadly the ball could not be freed quickly and the Gloucester defence was able to reorganise successfully. When Gloucester got hold of the ball Bristol strove to halt any move. Lima continued to be prominent as he put in a number of crunching (and legal!) tackles. Having reclaimed possession the Bristol pack hammered away at the defence, holding on to the ball well. Ultimately Scott Linklater picked up and drove from a ruck and looked to have driven, low, over the line as both defenders and attackers piled in. Even the Gloucester supporter in front of me agreed that it looked a try but regrettably the referee (who was admittedly closer, although not well positioned) did not. From the scrum Bristol fumbled the ball and the chance was gone. Still Bristol went looking for a score and they continued to batter at the defence, though without any great guile or invention. Their penalties were kicked to the corners and the lineout secured (after a period earlier in the match when both Mark Regan and then Linklater had struggled) but they were unable to find a key able to unlock the Gloucester defence. Both sides made replacements and news of the scores elsewhere doubtless made their way on too. The game drifted to its conclusion with no further scoring action and some rather unimaginative play that, in all honesty, I couldn't see much of due to the stupid girder.