Bris field weakened team and pay the price

Only try
By Duncan Wood
December 22 2002

Bristol fielded a weakened team against Rotherham and paid the ultimate price by crashing out of the Powergen Cup. A late comeback came up narrowly short but it was too little too late.

As things turned out, Bristol lost this one before the first whistle.

The team was unrecognisable from the one that started against Swansea. No Gibson and Higgins in the centre. No Christophers on the wing and no Pichot at scrum half. Felipe Contepomi was still missing presumably with his perforated ear drum.

In the pack, Darren Crompton and Paul Johnstone stepped down from the front row and Garath Archer and Alex Brown were missing from the second row. Craig Short (foot) and Matt Salter (concussion) missed out in the back row through injury.

In the post match press confeence, Peter Thorburn said that he had fielded his strongest available team and that injuries had forced his hand. Around me on the Centenary Terrace, the more cynical suggested that the 'weakened' team was the reason there had been no team announcement before the weekend.

And you don't have to be a psychological expert to imagine what Jim Kilfoyle said in the Rotherham dressing room beforehand. "Look lads, Bristol think they can beat you with their second team". The motivation job was done for him.

Bristol went into an early 6-0 lead with 2 Shane Drahm penalties. The second came after Mike Umaga took Ben Sturnham out with a dubious looking tackle. It was down the far end from me so I couldn't see too much but it looked like a case of using the shoulder rather than wrapping the arms. Umaga ended up in the sin bin. Sturnham looks like missing the rest of the season.

Drahm missed a 3rd penalty and Rotherham then stunned Bristol with their first foray into Bristol territory. From a scrum in front of the posts about 15 metres out, Mike Schmid picked up and simply cruised over. Nobody laid a hand on him. The breakdown in defensive communication made led to a 6-7 Rotherham lead after Pez's conversion.

With their noses in front, Rotherham settled for kicking long and challenging Bristol to run the ball back. Bristol had plenty of territory and possession but the Rotherham defensive line (often offside!) was inpenetrable.

Rotherham then hit Bristol with a sucker punch. An up and under was spilled backwards and the first Rotherham forward on the scene seemed to knock the ball forward. Scrum half Raulini chipped over the top and a tricky bounce meant that Shane Drahm was caught in possession and carried over.

From the scrum, Raulini fed Pez who moved it onto Umaga. Pez ran the dummy loop and Umaga simply popped the ball to Oliver who cruised through a gaping hole in the Bristol midfield. Pez's conversion made it 6-14.

Alarm bells should have been ringing and it may have been overeagerness but Bristol couldn't make any headway. Drahm ignored Rees when the winger was in acres of space on the outside. A penalty and drop goal went wide left. 6-14 at half time.

Andrew Higgins came on at half time for Matt Carrington and Bristol seemed more fired up. They turned over Rotherham ball deep in the Yorkshiremen's 22 and a Drahm penalty was the reward. 9-14.

Then came the killer blow. A Bristol scrum creaked but Beattie picked up and recycled. Richards fed Drahm but his clearance was charged down and Michael Wood scored with no-one near him. 9-21.

Drahm narrowed the gap with another penalty and Bristol suddenly started playing with some urgency and fluency as the game entered the final 20 minutes. However, Pez extended the lead with a penalty of his own.

Bristol sensed they were in deep trouble and turned up the heat. Drahm broke left and fed Lee Best. Besty made ground down the left before popping the ball up for Andrew Higgins to score. Drahm landed a tricky touchline conversion to narrow it to 19-24.

Bristol had plenty of chances to get the levelling score but the Rotherham defence was inspired. The best chance came when Lee Best opted to go for the line when he had David Rees outside him although there was very little room. Besty got munched and we were out of the Cup.

I left the ground deeply depressed. Bristol lacked leadership, a cutting edge in attack and the midfield defence sorely missed Daryl Gibson.

Regardless of the injuries, I can't help but feel that Rotherham were underestimated and that's food and drink to them. They had a game plan and they executed it perfectly. In that respect they were the worthy winners.

I'm still disappointed, however, that we're out of the Cup and we didn't even seem to give it our best shot.