Falcons Fail to Take Wing

Not that the referee agreed, ruling that Robinson had been held up over the line. From my angle, which was way better than any of the officials it looked as if, despite Robinson going over on his back, he just managed to touch the pointed end of the ball down. Sadly for Bristol the decision wasn't mine to give. From the resulting scrum, Bristol squandered possession and conceded a relieving penalty to Newcastle . The early pressure had come to nought.

Bristol were not to be denied for long however and opened their account on ten minutes. A long pass, well picked up by David Lemi held the Newcastle defence for a crucial instant and Lemi, despite a despairing ankle tap from Tom May, somehow managed to keep both in play and on his feet to touch down in the corner. An excellent try, that demonstrated Lemi’s skills at their best. Jason Strange made the difficult conversion look easy.

It was soon to be 10 -0 to a confident Bristol as Newcastle encroached at the ruck and gave Strange the kind of penalty chance he could kick in his sleep. Bristol were playing with great assurance with Nathan Budgett making some excellent runs and even the surprising figure of Dave Hilton appeared in midfield with the Newcastle defence disappearing in front of him. Newcastle survived this period and started to impose some structure on the game, controlling the ball better and not allowing Bristol to regain possession. They worked their way from side to side, slowly gaining territory in the face of some determined Bristol defence, with Jason Strange putting in some excellent tackles. How the team’s defence has improved over the season! Eventually however the pressure told and whilst the referee played an astonishingly long advantage, Matty Burke worked his way through a gap to score a good try for Toby Flood to convert, making the score 10 – 7 after half an hour played

Sensibly, Newcastle attempted something similar after the restart. The Bristol forwards had other ideas and won a penalty as Burke was forced to hold on for just a moment too long. Strange kicked the penalty to give Bristol a 13 – 7 lead. He also become Bristol ’s most successful penalty taker in a single season breaking the record of (and I’m surprised to write this, given how nervous his kicking always made me) kicking guru Mark Tainton.

Lemi than seemed to have intercepted a stray Newcastle offload and broke clear of the defence, but the referee thought he had knocked on. From my angle, once again, it looked like it came off Noon’s elbow. Another try denied by poorly positioned officials! Newcastle attempted to respond, but their only attack of note ended with Joe Shaw being forced into touch. There was still time in the half for Bristol to make another attack with Lemi and the increasingly prominent Dan Ward-Smith combining well to set Shaun Perry free, only for the final pass to be knocked on.

Newcastle came out in the second half looking curiously like West Ham. Presumably there was some sort of clash (at least in the referee’s mind), but when I think back to how we played in virtually identical kit to Penzance in our first season in ND1 with spectators, players and officials making continual errors because they couldn’t identify the teams, it seemed very minor. Surely the home side should have changed anyway? With a changed strip and the wind behind them could Newcastle eat into the Bristol lead?

Bristol clearly did not think so, and Perry made an excellent break towards the Newcastle line. At the ruck something appeared to upset Strange who was penalised to relieve the early pressure on Newcastle . As the visitors moved the ball downfield I noticed that our hooker was apparently named “ReAgan”. I was surprised that a dead US president was playing for us, and couldn’t remember when we had started to deploy necromancy in our bid to stay in the Premiership, although given the collective performance of our aged front five it has clearly been an effective approach. At this point hail added itself to the day’s catalogue of meteorology but fortunately only briefly and not enough to affect play or the pints of spectators.

Newcastle certainly had some more direction to their game and only strong defence and a slice of luck, as Perry’s clearance kick was charged down only for the ball to go dead, allowed Bristol to maintain their lead. Against the run of play in this mini Newcastle revival Bristol broke clear and the lethargic Charvis was penalised for holding on to the ball and Strange promptly kicked the points to give Bristol a 16 – 7 lead after 53 minutes. This seemed to drain Newcastle of confidence and Bristol were able to resume their dominance of attacking possession. The Newcastle scrum and line-out looked vulnerable throughout the game and they also conceded several turnovers when in possession. This advantage allowed Bristol to score another try as the Bristol back line, after another good forward effort, worked the ball from one side of the pitch to the other for Lemi to go in a the corner. Even from the opposite corner of the pitch there looked to be a hint of forward-ness to the midfield pass (certainly from the crowd reaction). But the referee was clearly better placed and saw nothing wrong – another example of the consistently excellent positional sense of the officials! Jason Strange, almost inevitably, made light work of another difficult conversion to make it 23 – 7 with nearly an hour played.

Bristol , of course, needed a bonus point to ensure league safety and looked capable of scoring the two further trys necessary. However, Vaughan Going was penalised for retaliating after being late-tackled. He was fortunate to stay on, in all honesty, and his punch, if it had properly connected, would probably have broken several bones in his hand. The resulting penalty to Newcastle forced Bristol back into their own half and allowed Newcastle to apply some pressure. The defence however remained resolute with even the derided defensive skills of Robinson shown to have improved markedly.

There was a late scare when a kick into the Bristol in-goal area caused some confusion but the ball eluded Newcastle’s Anthony Elliott as three Bristol defenders hurled themselves onto the ball, with all three sliding out of play and into the advertising hoardings. Robinson and Perry seemed to have taken particularly hard knocks. But both were able to return to the fray after the necromantic sponge had restored them. Unfortunately too little time remained for Bristol to work their way into try-scoring territory and the crowd counted down the last ten seconds of the game.

We aren’t quite safe yet with Leeds able to obtain a theoretical 15 points from their next three games which would enable them to overhaul several of the club’s above them, but we only need one more point and with a televised visit to lowly B**h to come next Saturday obviously there will be no difficulty whatsoever in acquiring the inevitable five point win. After all it’s only B**h! Newcastle on the other hand leave without any points and move down the table to just one place above Leeds . If results go the right/wrong way the last game of the season could prove a nerve-racking affair for both those clubs.