United win against Gloucester by 48 points to 20
Two 1st half tries
By Duncan Wood
January 28 2003
The Bristol Shoguns United team weathered an early storm against Gloucester and ended up turning on the style in a one sided 2nd half. Richard Martin-Redman scored 2 first half tries in a fine Bristol win.
This was a very impressive team performance against a Gloucester team that had quite a strong pack and it was particularly encouraging to see so many fine performances from the younger members of the team.
Bristol played into a strong wind in the first half and things looked a bit ominous in the first couple of mintes when a fine break from halfway by Gloucester number eight Nick Southern took play deep into the Shoguns 22 and the ball was recycled for left winger Mark Foster to score.
The games was punctuated by quite a few handling errors on what was a cold and wet night and the ferocity of some of the tackling by both sides was breathtaking. Shane Drahm made it 5-3 with a penalty.
Bristol gradually settled into their stride and the likes of Jamie Williams and Manual Contepomi started to show their strength and pace as Matt Carrington started to spread the ball wide.
Indeed it was Contepomi who broke the midfield defence with a great break and he offloaded the ball from the tackle for Richard Martin-Redman to go over under the posts. 10-5 to Bristol.
The game was actually quite close for the first half or so but the Shoguns pack, featuring a number of players with first team experience, started to take a grip and close range scores for Scott Witcombe and Martin-Redman resulted.
Gloucester responded with a close range score of their own from former Bristol Academy scrum half, Matt Britten, and a penalty to make it 20-15 to Bristol at half time.
Martin-Redman had looked particularly good in the first half and Contepomi had looked big, strong and quick in the centre. Sadly, the Argentine left the field with a finger injury shortly before half time and Martin-Redman couldn't shake off a dead leg and had to depart shortly after the restart.
Bristol now had the elements and Peter Richards, Matt Carrington and Shane Drahm started to come into their own in the tactical battle. Their line kicking was superb and their handling first class when they opened the game up in the final quarter.
Bristol dominated possession and territory but it looked for a while as though they wouldn't convert this into points. Scoring chances were created but weren't quite converted but the floodgates were about to break.
The Gloucester defence couldn't keep out the relentless wave of attacks and scores resulted for Jon Clarke, Mike Lipman, Matt Bourne and Tom Lambert. Matt Carrington was kicking beautifully at this point and was even able to drop kick 2 conversions.
Gloucester managed a scrappy consolation when Chris Wilkes hacked on a dropped Bristol pass and touched down for the score. 48-20 was the final score.
It was a fine team performance but the youngsters really shone. Richard Hunt had a fine game in the lineout and Martin-Redman looked very good until he had to leave the fray.
Tom Luke made several fine breaks after replacing Manu Contepomi and the likes of Bourne, Greg Nichols, Ross Laidlaw, Joe Horn-Smith and Dominic Jones all fitted in nicely when they came off the bench.
Peter Thorburn must have been impressed with the attitude of the youngsters who all played as though they had something to improve although I must stress that the more senior members of the team all played their part in helping the younger players settle in.
A very satisfying evening's work.