Bristol Shoguns v London Wasps

last match?
By David Hibell
May 5 2003

With three games to go Bristol find themselves with it all to do at the foot of the Zurich premiership after losing to Wasps on Sunday in the last home game proper of the season.

The game followed a very similar pattern to Wednesdays defeat at Northampton in that Bristol were leading at half time but conceded six tries in total to come out losers, but the performance was completely different, on Wednesday heads seemed to drop and Northampton had all of the play, here it was a different story with Bristol fighting all the way to the finish and scoring the last try of the match in injury time.

 

Bristol had made four changes to Wednesdays team, three positional, with Felipe Contemponi starting at fly half, Shane Drahm switching to full back and Lee Best moving to the left wing with Phil Christophers moving to outside centre in place of Andrew Higgins.

 

Bristol's line out was working well with the first few line outs being taken cleanly, the second one taken cleanly at the tail by Matt Salter showed that Bristol were here to attack but the ball was turned over and Saul Nelson took a knock.  Dallaglio picked up the ball from the base of the scrum but the ball was knocked on and Bristol were awarded a penalty from the resulting scrum.

 

Drahm was given the kicking duties and duly knocked the penalty over from 45 yards out, Wasps were awarded a penalty almost immediately on the restart & kicked for a five yard line out.  From the line out Leotta and Dallaglio took the ball on, it was fed right to John Rudd who was stopped, then the ball moved across to the left and Wasps were penalised for crossing in the act of scoring.

 

The ball was cleared to half way and the Bristol defence drove Wasps back, Leotta showed he has no future as a scrum half with a loose pass that went behind his man, the ball was turned over again and a neat grubber kick put in which was part charged down, the line out won and a break through midfield took play up to half way but nobody was on Gibson's shoulder and the move again broke down.

 

The pattern for the first half was fairly similar with Wasps up very quickly able to stifle Bristol's attacks, with the best chances coming from breaks from deep from Brendan Daniel and Daryl Gibson.  Wasps were utilising the Dallaglio Leotta combination and John Rudd made a number of powerful runs

 

Bristol were given a second penalty opportunity on the twenty minute mark Lee Best and Daryl Gibson taking the ball on before Drahm flung the ball to the right, Archer picked the ball up and Wasps were penalised for encroaching offside.  Pichot took a quick tap and Wasps were penalised for not retreating 10 yards.  Drahm had a bad contact on the penalty from the Wasps 10 yard line and pulled the ball to the left.

 

Wasps scored the first try of the half from a move started with a rare take against the head in a scrum, Dallaglio again picking up from the base of the scrum and combining with Leotta to punch holes up the middle, with a huge overlap on the right Abbott was left with an easy run in, King converting to put Wasps in front.

 

The restart went straight to touch and Bristol claimed Wasps line out, Dallaglio was penalised, Shane Drahm made no mistake this time and it was 6-7.

 

King had an opportunity to make it 6-10 shortly after as Bristol were penalised for going over the top but pulled the ball right from 30 yards.  The restart was kicked deep into Wasps territory Wasps forced Bristol back and we were forced to chip the ball on to the 22.  The line out was taken at the tail and chipped on to the 10 yard line, a short line out to Archer saw a rolling maul go fully 15 yards before Gibson broke, he fed Michael Lipman who set up a further maul and the Wasps number six was penalised for coming into the side of the ruck.  Drahm stepped up and it was 9-7.   Mat Carrington came on as a temporary replacement for Daryl Gibson who had taken a knock in the attack and there were no further incidents in the half.

 

Unbeknownst to the coaching staff Rhys Oakley had taken a knock in the first half causing concussion and early in the second half he made a mistake that led to a Wasps try missing a catchable ball trying to trap it instead the ball bounced loose and attempting to reclaim it Bristol were penalised for being offside, Paul Volley scoring Wasps second try from the line out, King again missing the kick 

 

Despite not showing the form that has led to his call up to the England team Josh Lewsey scored a try on his return to the Memorial ground as Stewart Abbott set him in from half way to score under the posts, King converting this time to make it 9-19 on 55 minutes.  Wasps did not have to wait long for the try scoring bonus, Van Ginsberg scoring within two minutes of Lewsey's try with Kings conversion attempt hitting the right upright.

 

Oakley went off shortly after to be replaced by Craig Short, the mandatory three week lay off for concussion is no longer in place so he is still available for selection for the next match.

 

Bristol showed they were full of fight as Gus took a quick tap penalty and offloaded to Sherridan who was held up over the line, Bristol were awarded a penalty and Drahm knocked the ball over to make it 12-24 with 20 minutes to go and when Wasps went down to 14 men after try scorer Volley was sin binned it looked like Bristol may be able to find a way back in.

 

A Bristol attack up the middle saw Wasps penalised again, Gus took another quick tap saw play move closer to the try line, the ball was fed back and a retreating Wasps player picked it up.  Wasps held firm though, Rob Howley had to leave the field to be replaced by Martin Wood, Lee Best also went off to be replaced by Jamie Williams.

 

Wasps ran in another try from deep with John Rudd again prominent in the build up evading three attempted tackles before feeding Greening, on for Leotta who passed onto Joe Worsley who ran on into the 22 before moving left for wannabe astronaut Ayoola Erinie to score, seventy six minutes gone and 12-29.

 

Worlsey turned from provider to try scorer after more good work from Stewart Abbott saw him in in the right corner on 39 minutes and it was all over for Bristol though Brendan Daniel got a deserved try at the end to leave the final score 19-34.