Bristol bring festive Joy (Division)

MOTM Candidate?
By Elegia
December 22 2003

Manchester will have had Revenge on their minds on their second visit to the Memorial Ground, no doubt boosted by the news of the recent spate of injuries to the Bristol squad.

Richard Hill had only 24 fit players to chose his match day squad but these days this is a team of substance that mesh together well, even so the way things have been going the other two must have been on stand by.

The Shoguns showed their intent to play an attacking game electing to go for touch when awarded a very kickable penalty just outside the Manchester twenty-two. Manchester infringed and Bristol were given a further penalty, again opting for the line out. The pack drove over the line and couldn’t have got any closer without scoring but Manchester were able to steal the ball and clear their lines.

Danny Gray got Bristol on the scoreboard kicking a penalty on twelve minutes. Some of the players showed a vicious streak as tempers frayed and punches were thrown as Bristol looked to get out of their twenty two from the restart. The shoguns were awarded a penalty and drove on up field where Danny Gray reached fifty league points with his second penalty.

The restart was short and in a dream attack from the scrum Sean Marsden broke down the right wing, he fed Marco who was able to go all the way and score the first try of the match, Danny Gray adding the conversion.

Manchester got onto the scoreboard with a successful penalty after Bristol were offside. Bristol went on the attack immediately, although it seemed he had nowhere to run to Paul Hodgson went on a weaving run towards the left corner evading the Manchester defenders and having the time to call the running line of the supporting player but before he could pass at the chosen time he was clobbered from behind and forced into touch.

Ollie Hodge managed to force an error and Manchester only succeeded in tapping the ball back into touch. Bristol went for the catch and drive and the ball was moved out wide but Danny Grays’ cross-field kick was simply read by the covering Manchester back who was able to clear the lines.

Bristol attacked again, as they had been all day long, with Sean Marsden this time feeding Mike Griffiths, but he was bundled into touch. Richard Hunt stole the lineout but Paul Hodgson was caught and the referee took play back to a previous knock on deep in the twenty two. Rob Higgit, having a fine time in the Bristol midfield of late, burst through in midfield to score under the posts.

Manchester enjoyed their best period of pressure with a spell of five minutes of concerted pressure in the left corner. A tap and go penalty from the scrum half Bramhall took play into the Shoguns twenty two, and they won another penalty.
They went for the line out, throwing to the tail but the Bristol defence held firm. Manchester were awarded another penalty and again went for the line out. Bristol managed to steal this one but knocked on. Manchester got another penalty from the scrum. They went in for the kill with another throw to the tail where this time they were able to cross for a try that Brown converted.

Manchester attacked again from the restart but Bristol managed to force them into making errors, but the injury curse struck again as Richard Hunt was hurt, with Craig Hill coming on and Matt Styles moving into the back row.

Bristol won a line out with the ball being spun out from a line out but a stray Manchester hand knocked the ball up and the movement took the momentum out of the attack as Mike Griffith had to slow down to take the ball, Manchester were able to hack the ball on to the right corner. Saul Nelson broke from the disorder of the line out, and Sean Marsden was able to take the play up to half way on half time.

Times change and the second half did not bring the avalanche of points that was expected, instead of a procession of tries the crowd had to get ready for some less than inspired play. Rain began to fall hard forcing many of the spectators to seek an oasis of shelter in the stand on the northside of the pitch and making it hard for the team to play with so much width.

Danny Gray had an early chance in the third minute with a long range penalty but although he had the distance it pulled slightly left. Bristol soon had numerical advantage, as second row Matt Owen was sin binned, but failed to capitalise.

Manchester were awarded a free kick with their scrum under pressure and used this as a platform to launch an attack of their own. Bristol held firm but paid a high price with an injury to Mike Griffiths that will put him out for the rest of the season and must make it murder for Richard Hill to chose his team, the week off will be a very welcome one. Owen Evans replaced the luckless Griffiths as Brown scored his second penalty of the match to go within one converted try of the Shoguns score.

The lead was not to be extended until the half hour mark, with Bristol having driven up the middle two Manchester players seemed to have lost their senses as they were impeding Danny Grey behind the referee, but they were made to pay as when he received the ball he put in a steepling cross field kick fielded by Richard Martin Redman loitering on the wing who was able to stroll over in the corner, the Bristol fly half showing great technique to convert from the corner.

Manchester attacked again from the restart but received their second yellow card but numbers were soon even with Chris Morgan also being penalised not long after.

As forty minutes came up and finding himself in isolation Danny Gray chipped ahead into the right corner, the ball was fielded but the diminutive fly half was able to bundle the covering player into touch into the corner. The ball went loose on the line out and in the confusion Dave Hilton was able to prove that dreams never end Dave Hilton had a look of ecstasy on his face as he scored his first Bristol try for decades from close range to secure the bonus point.

Manchester grabbed themselves a second try from the restart with replacement Jason Cundick scoring the converted try to leave the electronic scoreboard showing Bristol 34 Manchester 20 at the finish, the Bristol players will be having happy Mondays, whereas for Manchester it will be very much a blue Monday.