BRISTOL are facing the harsh reality of spending a sixth successive season in the GKIPA Championship – unless they can produce the comeback of comebacks at the Memorial Stadium next Wednesday.
On a dismal evening at the Kassam Stadium in Oxford, Bristol – who had won their previous 15 Championship games – suffered their heaviest defeat of the season, going down by 19 points as they failed to reproduce any of the fine form that had carried them to the final.
The occasion carried hallmarks of Bristol’s grim surrender to Exeter in the second leg of the 2010 final, when they went down 29-10 at the Memorial Stadium after losing the opening leg by three points.
This time, they at least have the opportunity to redeem themselves in the second leg – the club’s final game at their home of 93 years – but they will need to summon all of their powers of recovery, and more, if they are to avoid spending another season in the second tier of English rugby.
To make matters even worse on a woeful night for Bristol, they lost captain Ryan Jones – making only his second appearance for the club – to what appeared to be a serious ankle injury, while Luke Baldwin and Kyle Traynor also hobbled off.
Bristol had led through Marco Mama’s early try – but, after tries from Nathan Trevett, Nick Scott and Carl Kirwan, they trailed 27-5, before Adrian Jarvis’s late penalty cut the deficit to 19 points.
Bristol trailed 17-5 at half-time – after a tame, error-strewn and uninspiring opening 40 minutes that had echoes of their first-half performance against Rotherham in the opening leg of the semi-final.
They trailed by nine points on that occasion, before fighting back to win by three points. This time, they fell even further behind, making their task next week mountainous.
Bristol had started brightly, too. They grabbed the lead inside five minutes when, after Nicky Robinson had set up a five-metre line-out with an inch-perfect touch-finder, the Bristol pack drove Welsh back across their own line, with Mama diving over.
Robinson missed the conversion – from a tight angle – but Bristol were on top and were looking dangerous.
But the match changed in three first-half minutes. First, Jack Wallace kicked the ball out on the full from 25 metres out – and, after Welsh had driven the resulting line-out and won a penalty, they kicked to touch again. From the set-piece, they scored an almost identical try to Bristol’s opener, with prop Trevett the beneficiary from a powerful line-out drive. Gordon Ross converted to make it 7-5.
Bristol responded, attacking and committing men forward. But, in doing so, they left themselves susceptible to a counter-attack – and, when Luke Baldwin tapped, ran, and lost the ball in contact, they were out of position in defence.
Welsh broke at speed, with wing Scott holding off a couple of fellow former Colston’s School students, George Watkins and Jack Tovey, to dive over under the posts and give Ross a routine conversion for 14-5.
Play was held up for five minutes while Bristol captain Jones was treated for what appeared to be a serious ankle injury – and, after losing their skipper, they also saw Baldwin hobble off with an injury.
Bristol had been poor, unimaginative and predictable, their tactics seemingly muddled. But it had appeared as if they would get in at break only nine points down, until they strayed offside and Ross punished them, extending the Welsh lead to 12 points.
They continued to live dangerously after the restart, Ruki Tipuna fortunate to get away with a chip over the top that required Wallace to scramble back in defence. From the resulting scrum, Bristol conceded a penalty, and, from the subsequent line-out, they shipped a third try – and fell 19 points behind in the tie, when Kirwan was driven over and Ross converted.
Bristol made wrong decision after poor choice after bad call, forgetting their lines when it mattered most, despite finishing the regular season eight points clear of second-placed Welsh, and having beaten them 25-21 at the Memorial Stadium last month off the back of some scintillating attacking play. Even in their topsy-turvy semi-final encounter with Rotherham, they had shown characteristics of fight, resilience and, above all, belief. But, as the rain teemed down and the mistakes multiplied, Bristol looked lost, worried and beaten.
Scott knocked on as the line – and a potential 24 or even 26-point deficit – beckoned, which afforded Bristol something of a let-off. But soon, Bristol’s evening somehow went from bad to worse, with Nick Koster shown a yellow card by referee Wayne Barnes for killing the ball as Welsh prepared to strike, and Ross – as he had done all evening – finding the middle of the posts, to make it 27-5.
Bristol had the opportunity to cut the deficit from 22 points to 19 in the dying minutes when Welsh strayed offside – and they took it, with Jarvis knocking over the penalty from 25 metres. But their task in the second leg remains a monumental one.
Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/24412491
Bristol Rugby face mammoth task after losing by 19 points at London Welsh
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