By David Hibell
March 2 2003

Bristol secure maximum points in must win game but Peter Thorburn was unhappy that Quins were allowed late tries. "I'm not very happy because the table is very congested & they could be very costly." Bristol Shoguns raced from the blocks to go 7-0 up in the fist couple of minutes. The ball was hoisted up in midfield and Pichot broke
free from the resulting ruck to to race in unoposed under the posts followed by a Contpomi style celebration. Felipe slotted the extras
& the die was cast for the rest of the game in which 11 tries were scored in all.

In the opening minutes the game was being played at a frenentic pace and after more pressure down the right flank Bristol were awarded a penalty which Felippe converted & it was 5 minutes played and 10-0.

Bristol were penalised straight from the restart for blocking the Quins runners and Paul Burke made no mistake with his atempt to make it 10-3

The pace slowed and things became more fractious and scrappy. Several times scrums had to be reset & it looked like the game was going
to turn into a whistle blowing exercise. The Bristol forwards were dominating proceedings at this point and earnt a couple more penalties which Contepomi converted.

The second try came from a lineout move on the Quins 22. The ball was quickly moved back to Saul Nelson who showied that it's not just the backs that can do it as he too ran in unopposed to put Bristol 21-3 up.

It seemed like Bristol had the better of the conditions and though Quins were not getting many chances they did turn down a couple of long range penalties opting instead to go for touch before Burke pushed his second penalty attempt wide. Not long after that Quins had what seemed like their first spell of possession in the Bristol 22 & after Bristol had turned the ball over & kicked for touch once Quiuns ran the ball back keeping up the pressure on the right hand side & luger was able to pounce on the bouncing ball for a try which Burke converted.

Bristol again fought down field & forced Quins to concede a lineout in their 22. Quins were penalised before the throw & Bristol opted for the lineout. The catch and drive set up a well controlled rolling maul ending with a number of players forcing their way over the line. The try was awarded to Alex Brown and although Felipe missed the conversion the game appeared safe at half time with Bristol in control and the score 29-10.

Quins struck early in the second half in unusual circumstances. Bristol had the ball charged down in their 22 and the ball ballooned off the unfortunate Jamie Williams landing kindly for Will Greenwood to touch the ball down & at 29-17 it started to look a little different.

Quins made a couple of changes with Diprose coming on for Sheriff & Codling also being replaced.

In possibly the best move of the whole match Andrew Higgins made the first of two scintillating breaks, running from his 22 to deep in the Quins half, he fed Daryl Gibson who looked to offload the ball to the supporting wing (Rees?) in the tackle, however David Rees was himself being tackled at this point earning new signing Mel Deane a spell in the sin bin.

The next ten minutes were costly for Quins as straight from the lineout from the resulting penalty the ball was fed left, Felipe broke a couple of tackles & shipped the ball to birthday boy Gibson who ran in the first of his brace under the posts & secured the try bonus point.

Andrew Higgins was again involved in the next Bristol attack but took a knock and had to leave the field, Lee Best came on and moved to full back with David Rees switching to the centre and Jamie Williams moving to the wing.

Gibson got his second on the left wing shortly after this to make it 41-13. Instead of closing the game down and playing the percentages Bristol continued to try and force the game & Quins took full advantage of this. First Diprose scored in the left corner, then Bristol managed to hold the ball up over the try line & then Gollings scored in the left corner after quick ball from a scrum. Burke converted both of these to bring Quins within 10 points and a chance to steal the game.

There were more replacements with Mat Salter was replaced by Rhys Oakley & Paul Johnson had a return to propping duties replacing Sherridan on 35 minutes.

There was still time for more tries firstly in an ironic echo of the game at the stoop it came from a failure to deal with a speculative chip through from Pichot. Gus had chipped ahead on the right wing and though both Gollings and Fulton beat him to the ball they failed to secure it, merely knocking it towards the posts where Gus was able to pounce. The 80 minutes was up and Felippes conversion made it 48-31.

Drahm came on for Jamie Williams as the game went into injury time but the scoring was not finished. Nathan Williams touching down in the 85th minute, Burke converting meaning that a penalty or drop goal would give them a valuable losing bonus point in addition to the try scoring bonus they had already secured. With the clock ticking down Burke attempted a drop goal which agonisingly hit the right upright, the ball was cleared to touch and The players and bench began celebrating the win.

It wasnt over yet though as the touch judge had seen an indiscretion and Burke had a penalty attempt for the bonus, despite alot of crowd noise he was succesful this time & the referee blew for full time after a 50 minnute half.

Man of the match went to Daryl Gibson & the big hit award to David Rees