Quins end recent Shoguns league run at the Stoop

2 tries
By Duncan Wood
January 5 2003

This one was in the balance until the final 15 minutes but, overall, it was a disappointing Bristol performance after the high of beating Sale last weekend. David Rees' 2 try comeback was in vain.

Funny what a difference a week makes!

Last weekend against Sale, the scrum and lineout were nigh on perfect and Felipe Contepomi was 6 out of 6 with his place kicking in atrocious conditions.

Yesterday at the Stoop, Andrew Sheridan was given quite a tough time in the scrum by all accounts and Alex Codling played havoc with the Bristol lineout. Feliop misses a few attempts at goal and we slipped to defeat despite outscoring Quins by 3 tries to 2.

Paul Burke got Quins off the mark with an early penalty but David Rees, a late replacement for Phil Christophers, reminded everyone why he was an England winger not so very long ago.

Will Greenwood's pass went to ground deep in the Bristol half and Reesy scooped up the loose ball, chipped ahead, regathered and raced in from 70 yards.

Felipe missed the conversion and his misery was compounded shortly after the restart when he was yellow carded for not rolling away.

Bristol only leaked one penalty in his absence with Paul Burke giving Quins a 6-5 lead but the Bristol lineout was creaking and Quins turned the screw.

Their pressure paid off when Burke and Greenwood exchanged passes after the fly half gathered a Contepomi kick an dcreated space to send Ben Gollings in under the posts. 13-5 to Quins.

There was no more scoring in the first half although Contepomi had a chance to reduce the gap with a penalty although he missed unfortunately. Quins deserved the half time lead and, frankly, would have expected to be further clear.

Bristol started the 2nd half in a much more positive fashion. The forwards started punching holes around the fringes with powerful running and Andrew Sheridan drove deep into the Quins 22 from a lineout. Lee Best almost made it to the line but, when the ball was recycled, Daryl Gibson showed great strength to power over. Felipe converted and Bristol were within 1 point after 50 minutes.

Burke edged Quins a little further clear with another penalty on 57 minutes before the Shoguns scored a fine try. Forwards and backs combined through several phases before creating an overlap and Alex Brown put David Rees clear for his 2nd try. The conversion failed but Bristol had a narrow 16-17 lead.

Burke, rapidly becoming his former team's nemesis, immediately restored the Quins lead with another penalty but the killer blow was yet to come.

With 10 minutes left, Will Greenwood chipped optimistically into the Bristol in goal area. Brendon Daniel seemed to have plenty of time but dithered fatally and Greenwood got the touch down.

It was an unfortunate enough error but the winger would have been mortified to commit it against his former team. Burke's conversion rubbed salt into the wound by moving Bristol out of bonus point territory.

Overall, Quins were worthy winners but Bristol will be frustrated that this one slipped away when they were leading narrowly with only 15 minutes left.

But it's a tough league and mistakes are punished in the Premiership. Individual errors can cost a team dear and that's what happened yesterday.

I'm sure Peter Thorburn will be wondering how a team can scale the heights of excellence one week and then disappoint the next.