AN ILL WIND BLOWS BRISTOL NO GOOD

A stuttering performance from Bristol saw the home side carry a slender three point advantage into the second leg. It was a generally poor showing, not quite as bad as at Ealing perhaps, but certainly getting there (both played in poor conditions - coincidence?). However, having lost a first leg of a semi before and the first leg of a final I suppose a win is actually an improvement!

Bristol kicked off into the wind, which was an odd thing.  At Andy Robinson’s Q & A session he claimed that in windy conditions he’d play with the wind in the first half in case it changed in the second.  Not that it mattered in the end as the wind continued to gust strongly and unpredictably throughout.  Bristol showed their attacking intent from the outset only for a dangerous break to be called back for a forward pass.   The initial scrums were rather messy affairs and eventually Bristol were awarded a penalty.  Even in these conditions it was certainly kickable but Bristol stuck to their guns and went for touch.   The ball was whipped out right from the lineout and it appeared that George Watkins was in at the corner but he stepped into touch before touching down.

Poor control at a ruck (and this was something of a theme with the referee’s interpretation being slightly unusual.  So much so that a youngster in front of me was heard to say “Are they allowed to go past the ball and then fall over?”  Normally the answer would be ‘No’.)  gave Rotherham possession and the ball was hoofed downfield.  Bristol were penalised and the reliable Socino struck the long range effort to take his side in front.  Bristol’s woes were compounded with the restart kicked out on the full. 

Surprisingly, given the fact that the Rotherham prop was driving at 90° to the rest of the pack, Bristol were penalised.  From right on halfway Socino again went for the posts and the ball, on a downward arc, cleared the crossbar with plenty to spare.  Another penalty soon went the way of the visitors and this one, from inside their half went over after hitting the crossbar.  As the half drew to a close Rotherham piled on the pressure close to the Bristol line, but the oft criticised defence held firm and, instead, Rotherham were penalised to allow Bristol to clear the danger.

You can’t imagine the coaching team were very impressed by that performance and, sure enough, Bristol re-emerged in the second half in a chastened but determined manner.  The opening exchanges were a cagey affair but after an incidence of foul play in which Brown was shown yellow for punching (I thought the touch judge/assistant referee was flagging for something just before so something untoward was going on) Bristol finally managed to trouble the scoreboard.

A kick to touch gave Bristol a close range drive from the lineout.  Rotherham tried to disrupt it (illegally, but the referee seemed untroubled despite Alfie To’oala apparently forgetting which team he was playing for), but Gaston Cortes managed to get over the line and touched down for an unconverted try.  Another try came up shortly after when Bristol turned over Rotherham as they threatened the Bristol line.  Marco Mama took the ball on initially with one of his loping runs before feeding Auguy Slowik.  The young full-back had the confidence to carry the ball at pace when the temptation must have been to hack the ball forward and he made excellent ground before being brought to the deck.  The ball went quickly left to Rhys Lawrence who sent in Luke Eves for an unconverted try that took Bristol one point in front.

Yellow fever struck Rotherham again soon after when replacement Williamson angrily took the walk of shame.  His was just the last of a series of infringements as Bristol pressed the Rotherham defence hard.  Despite his protestations it was probably a yellow card offence on its own.

Bristol continued to press and eventually, after five scrums, replacement Mitch Eadie picked up a difficult ball and powered his way over for a converted try and a 17 – 9 lead.

Sadly for the hosts, they were unable to maintain the lead as, with the very last move of the game Broadley went over in the left-hand corner.  Socino had the chance to take his side into the second leg just one point behind, but his first kick into the wind was well off target to leave the final score at 17 – 14.