BRISTOL TRIUMPH AT END OF AN IRREGULAR SEASON

After the longest and strangest season ever, Bristol ended up in third place in the league and winning the European Challenge Cup.  Somewhere in-between was the small matter of a pandemic, suspension of the season and then a very compressed conclusion to the season concluding not with a first European trophy but with the club caught in a strange limbo on standby to fill Wasps’ place in the Premiership final before learning that Wasps could fly after all.  A bizarre end to a bizarre season.

Bristol started the 2019-2020 Gallagher Premiership season on Friday, October 18th 2019 at 7:45PM with a 43 – 16 win over a lacklustre B**h.  That’s not to mention the Premiership Cup which had started on 20^th September!  It finished with a first ever European trophy won in a game kicking off on Friday, October 16^th 2020 at 8PM in a municipal stadium in France with just a thousand supporters of opponents Toulon allowed in.  The 32 – 19 victory concluded what was undoubtedly the most extraordinary season ever.

Yes, Bristol finished third in the Premiership and claimed a first trophy in decades (leaving aside the one you get for promotion) but what made the season extraordinary for all clubs was the Covid-19 pandemic which lead to a halt in almost all sport not just rugby.  Let’s not forget that the Premiership is the only level of the game to restart after lockdown, with community clubs restricted to touch rugby within the club.  Oh, and the defending league and European champions were deducted a huge number of points, fined a huge sum and chose to be relegated rather than open the books to show compliance with the salary cap. Have I missed anything out?  Probably.

Bristol followed up the opening win with a disappointing loss away at Harlequins before going on a winning run (with a strange draw against London Irish in the middle)of six games that saw the club brush aside European opposition and a stunning away victory against Exeter.  The run crashed to a halt against Saracens who trounced Bristol  47 – 13 and was followed up by two further loses.

Then came a run of seven games in which Bristol beat all comers (except for another strange draw, this time against Zebre) and propelling it up the table.  This run of victories was halted not by defeat but by a virus.  The league went into abeyance after 8^th March 2020 and didn’t restart until August 15^th when Bristol took on and defeated Saracens.  By now new player contracts had come into force having originally been written in the distant pre-Covid days.  So Bristol now had two loan players from disgraced Saracens available, long-rumoured signing Kyle Sinckler and the star name of Semi Radradra.  Unfortunately his first touch was a knock-on but he went on to be a deserved favourite of the media and supporters in the remainder of the restarted season.  A season that now gave Bristol 13 games in two and half months.  The irregular season climaxed with Super Saturday with clubs still vying for top four places and European qualification.  Except, of course, it didn’t.  News had broken that Sale had a big Covid-19 outbreak, Northampton had to forfeit a game after players were infected by contact with Sale players and, inexplicably, Sale was permitted to postpone its game before, unsurprisingly, the scale of the outbreak forced a cancellation.  A typically muddled response by the authorities that was entirely characteristic.  All these games, bar the final, took place with no supporters present.  Bristol’s most successful season in the professional era and long-suffering but expectant supporters unable to attend.  The outlandishness of the season was typified in its conclusion that saw Bristol placed on standby for the Premiership final, despite being soundly beaten by Wasps in the semi-final, because Wasps had a number of positive C-19 tests.  Fortunately this ludicrous contingency plan hasn’t needed to be activated.

Now we turn to next season which starts away at Wasps on 22^nd November!  Still without spectators.  Strange times that have perhaps overshadowed the achievements of Bristol’s players and coaches in a season that will be remembered by most of the rugby world for all the wrong reasons.