Bristol tame Tigers once more

Bristol Win
By Mike Hill
May 21 2002

For once the Almighty seemed to have misplaced his green , red and white shirt - maybe it was in the wash. After half an hour being soaked in the ticket queue before the game I felt like I’d been in there with it.

The pitch resembled a boating lake for much of the game and by the time the rain had eased the Tigers coxless eight had sunk without a trace.

The omens were not good even before the heavens opened with key players Stimpson, Garforth, Back and Johnson all rested. The poor attendance and Leon’s serious looking injury after five minutes all added to the general feeling that for once at Welford Road it was not to be our day.

To say Tigers were not ‘up’ for this game is an understatement, far too many players seemed to have both eyes on next weekend. Tigers seemed to be caught cold in the first half with Bristol showing far greater speed and hunger for the ball. A few missed tackles let Bristol in for some soft tries and the game was following the same pattern as the fixture at the Memorial Stadium.

David Rees opened the scoring for the visitors taking an inside ball from Contepomi and carving through the disjointed defence with panache. The Argentine pair were as influential as ever and it was Contepomi that outshone his more experienced partner. Minutes later the fly half was showing Austin Healey a clean pair of heels as he burst through a weak tackle to put a Bristol flanker away for a try under the posts.

Tigers did eventually get their defence sorted and started to put some pressure on Bristol but it wasn’t to be as passes were spilt and opportunities missed. Ben Kay narrowly failed to score in the corner after Andy Goode’s crossfield kick found him lurking on the wing. Later in the game Josh was denied a perfectly legitimate try after supporting a strong drive to the line by Rod Kafer. The pressure eventually told when Andy Goode glided over but the game was eighty minutes old at this point and the double treble chance well and truly gone.

Austin Healey was substituted for Jamie Hamilton early in the second half and looked none too pleased as he bypassed the bench and headed straight to the dressing room. In my opinion Austin was upset that he was given no chance to impress at fly half in this game and therefore realises he will start at nine in the final. Deano will not have been impressed by this latest show of petulance and it’s certainly not going to secure him his desire to be the first choice fly half.

Jamie on the other hand took his chance with gusto and looks to be in the form of his life at present. Maybe his best is still to come a la Dorian West. He tackled well on Saturday, a weakness of his game in previous seasons, and his passing was top notch. Austin should be careful he isn’t demoted to third choice scrum half behind Harry and Jamie who have no ego problems. Maybe Oz is frustrated that he’s not living up to the standard he has displayed in previous seasons.