Season Review

At the start of the season Bristol were most pundits’ choice to be relegated back to National League One. This conveniently ignored the fact that both Worcester and ourselves had previously managed to retain Premiership status on promotion. However, the omens were not good when we suffered a 40-14 pre-season home defeat to recently relegated Harlequins. Of course, you could point out that they had largely retained the services of their best players, in stark contrast to us when relegated, but it certainly made you think about the step up from NL1 to the Premiership.

The season began with a home match against arch-rivals B**h, who were beaten 19-16 due to a fine late try from debutant winger Lee Robinson, one of three players brought into the squad from NL1. I have to say that, in common with many of the people round me at the time, I had just said that Robinson was useless at this level and ought to come off. Oops. It just goes to show that Hilly knows best! Victory over B**h and away to Newcastle was followed by a string of defeats - Gloucester, London Irish, Saracens and Wasps all beat Bristol to leave us with just two wins out of seven matches. The game against Gloucester was particularly poor with Bristol just not performing. The Irish game was close, and I still fail to understand how the referee and touch judges missed so many Irish errors in the build up to one of their tries. The loss to Saracens was also disappointing, particularly because Saracens didn’t look that good. The narrow defeat to Wasps on a bitterly cold night brought some self-belief back to the team and led to two successive home victories - against Leeds and Sale . Leeds were probably the worst side to visit the Mem last season and I thought at the time that they would be relegated unless there was a massive improvement. Typically, this was their last heavy defeat; they did improve, but thankfully not enough. The visit of Sale showed that Bristol were well capable of handling the top sides, especially if they were blow their very best. Leicester certainly confirmed this, as a below strength Tigers side gave us another welcome and surprising home win.

Come the New Year though, Bristol lost against both Sale; although a surprise league double was certainly on the cards for a long while in this one, and Northampton . Then came a demoralizing home defeat against Worcester followed by losing at Leeds without even collecting a bonus point. This defeat at Headingley may well have given Leeds renewed hope, but Bristol went on to tough out a draw with Wasps and then won the daunting ‘must win’ away game against Saracens 19-13. They then picked up a losing bonus point in another narrow defeat, 21-20, against London Irish, before producing undoubtedly the finest result of the season: a fantastic 20-15 win at Gloucester.

Safety became almost certain when Newcastle were well beaten at the Mem, and was finally confirmed when, as we waited to take on B**h, news filtered through that Leeds had lost to London Irish. Disappointingly we were then unable to finish the season on a winning note, but the objective of the season was to achieve Premiership survival and it was achieved with three games to go.

Next season is another story!