SCOTS SUCCUMB TO BRISTOL BONUS

Bristol just about kept in the play-off hunt with a bonus point victory over London Scottish.  The final score was a comfortable looking 19 - 38 but once again the defence was opened up with troubling ease on a couple of occasions.  Back into fourth place but with a visit to unbeaten Newcastle up next and with Bedford now in fifth place but a game in hand and both against ‘lower’ opponents it looks as if the play-offs are almost certainly beyond us.

In rainy and blustery conditions (which mean I took no notes) it was Scottish who had the first chance but winger Love slipped as he struck an early penalty chance and the ball went way off target.  Instead it was Bristol who opened the scoring with a penalty to touch and a familiar catch and drive.  Scottish held firm but Mariano Sambucetti hammered over for what I think is his third try in as many games.  Adrain Jarvis slotted the conversion.

Bristol seemed untroubled by the tricky conditions and another lineout move saw the ball on to the support run of George Watkins who popped the ball up for James Merriman to score another concerted try.  Love then missed another penalty chance before Bristol looked to score again following another lineout drive but the referee was right on the spot and ruled that the ball was held up.

Just before half time Scottish at last managed a dangerous move and Love made an excellent angled run that opened up the visitors’ defence for, I’m told, Thompson to dive over out wide.  The conversion was missed to make the half time score 5 – 14.

Bristol quickly extended their lead at the beginning of the second half.  Jarvis darted into space and the ball was worked, by way of a fairly obvious forward pass it must be said, to Jon Goodridge who went over for a well converted try.

Scottish then opened up the Bristol defence with an excellent move started by an lovely grubber kick that wrong-footed the entire Bristol backline that was then seized by Whatling who scored by the posts.  Love at last managed to kick some point and it was that fine palindromic score of 12 -21.

Sensibly Bristol took the wind out of the Scottish sails with a good long-range penalty effort from Jarvis before taking the game away from the hosts with two tries in quick succession.  Bristol applied sustained pressure on the Scottish line then moved the ball swiftly along the line to fashion a huge overlap for Goodridge.  Then it was Merriman’s turn to grab a second when an attempted chip kick was snapped up by Fautua Otto who broke away and then fed Merriman for a simple touchdown.

It was scant consolation for the hosts but they closed the scoring with the best try of the game with Mantella carving his way past several defenders to score from at least 50 metres out.  Love converted to make the final score 19 - 38