Bristol and Irish share spoils in pulsating draw

1st try
By Duncan Wood
November 17 2002

Shane Drahm had a chance to cap a fine personal performance with the winning kick. 99% of the crowd thought he'd done it but the flags stayed down as the ball apparently went "over the top of the post"

Irish made a spirited start and their efforts were rewarded when Barry Everitt made no mistake with penalties awarded for a high tackle and offside at the ruck respectively. After 10 minutes, Bristol were 6-0 down and had barely touched the ball.

However, Bristol got some possession and territory and struck back immediately. They were awarded a penalty deep in the Irish 22 after a great break by Shane Drahm. Rather than kicking for goal, a quick tap was fired out to Brendon Daniel and the winger shrugged aside a would be tackler before powering over in the corner. It was a bold decision and Drahm's conversion meant that it had paid off.

Everitt immediately landed another penalty to restore the Irish lead but Drahm was having a great game with ball in hand. He glided through the Exiles's defence from the 22 and was hauled down a couple of feet short. Irish piled into the ruck and referee Goodliffe saw something untoward and awarded a penalty try. 14-9 to Bristol.

The game lost its shape a little and the next meaningful action was Emilano Bergamaaschi being yellow carded. The ref said that it was for persistent infringements yet neither Bergamaschi nor captain Archer had been spoken to?

Bristol survived his absence unscathed but the lineout was beginning to creak. We lost several in a row and the lack of possession meant that the Irish were able to camp in our half and roll the rucks and mauls. Drahm had also taken a heavy knock and was not moving well, dropping back to fullback and unable to kick for touch for a while.

On the stroke of half time, Everitt kicked his 4th penalty to make it 14-12 and, deep into injury time, incessant Irish pressure produced a half gap for former Bristol centre Nick Burrows who fought his way over despite several would be tacklers. Everitt's conversion gave Irish an unlikely 14-19 lead at half time.

The feeling at half time was that Bristol certainly had the winning of this but would have to tidy up the lineout and starve Everitt of possession. He was kicking beautifully out of hand and pinning Bristol back time after time.

Drahm gave the Shoguns a dream start to the 2nd half with a penalty to narrow the gap to 17-19 after only a couple of minutes but a nervous 20 minutes followed with Bristol forcing the pace but turning the ball over too frequently to thwart their attacking intentions.

Brendon Daniel provided the spark again. Given a yard of space on halfway, he printed past the cover and chipped over Mike Horak. The ball bounced up kindly for him but the winger was tackled before he could gather it. A penalty try looked inevitable and possibly a yellow card but Goodliffe amazed the crowd by only awarding a penalty.

Considering the wobbly lineout, Archer went for the kick to the corner and was prominent in the drive for the line. Bristol were held up close so moved the ball left where Drahm jinked his way through the defence and showed great strength and determination to go over. His conversion made it 24-19 on 62 minutes.

Having offered little in attack in the 2nd half, Irish suddenly had to step it up and they immediately struck back with another Everitt penalty but Drahm matched it to make it 27-22 as the game went into the final 10 minutes.

Bristol's defence had looked good to this point but Pieter Roussow, who had been very quiet to this point, suddenly scythed through. Andrew Higgins made a great cover tackle and Bristol repelled the next couple of phases but ran out of tacklers as Irish moved the ball left and Danaher went over wide out. Everitt landed a great conversion to nudge the Exiles in front 27-29.

Bristol only had a couple of minutes to respond and, understandably, threw caution to the wind. Peter Richards' pass to Daryl Gibson was telegraphed and Roussow looked set for the interception and clinching score but the wily Kiwi tugged him back and gave away the penalty. Everitt landed it from only a couple of yards inside the Bristol half and our goose looked cooked.

However, the Shoguns showed great character. They gained possession and Phil Christophers put Lee Best into the line. Besty powered into the 22 and was brought down only a couple of metres short. Bristol recycled and moved it left. Daryl Gibson took it on with the unlikely figure of Saul Nelson in the left wing position. Gibson gave the pass and Saul dived over in the left hand corner.

So, the pressure was on Shane Drahm who was as far out on the left as you can get. He struck it perfectly and the kick looked a beauty. However, the flags stayed down. Quizzed afterwards, the touch judge said that the ball had gone straight over the top of the post.

It was tough on Drahm who had orchestrated so many attacking moves and deserved to be the hero. Slowly but surely, the Aussie has been winning over the Memorial Stadium crowd and today he showed guts as well as skill to play on despite obvious discomfort.

So, 32-32 the final score and Bristol move above Irish in the table. It was a real dogfight with neither team able to pull away. Bristol tried to play more rugby but were guilty of too many turnovers which ended promising moves.

Irish relied heavily on Everitt's kicking to establish field possession and he did it excellently. They then put real pressure on the Bristol lineout and retained possession well, earning penalty opportunities for Everitt.

Referee Goodliffe was the main talking point afterwards as, once again, an official falls foul of the home crowd.

However, Bristol had enough chances to win this and should have done so really. Nelson's try gave them a bonus point so 3 points earned out of the game.

There's still plenty to work on and I'm sure lineout work will be top of the list this week in training.