By Duncan Wood
September 30 2002

Julian White's red card after only 2 minutes yesterday should have spelt curtains for Bristol. As it was, it merely inspired his team mates to one of the more memorable Bristol victories in recent years.

It could well have been the turning point of the match. Some may well argue that it still was. White's sending off should have, according to the script, set Leicester en route to a comfortable win. Instead the 14 men pulled off a stunning victory.

I have to confess that I didn't see the incident, only some of the fracas that followed. The scrum was on the far side of the field from me so I can only speculate as to who started what.

Speaking to a few people after the game who were watching from the West enclosure, they were adamant that a Leicester forward had started the whole affair by going in on White with his knee raised.

There is no question that Julian retaliated. It is alleged that he used his head. I'm certainly not condoning that but I saw him after the game and he'd taken some considerable damage himself. There were certainly plenty of punches flying.

One question to consider is whether he was deliberately targetted? There was certainly some history in this fixture. White and Peter Short were sent off at the Memorial Stadium last season.

So, was there a ploy in place to have a go at the first ruck/ maul/ scrum in an attempt to get a quick penalty and maybe a yellow card? It's all pure speculation but not beyond the realms of fantasy.

As it turned out, the red card was beyond the Tigers' wildest dreams. Admittedly, they lost Lewis Moody for 10 minutes but he was available for the remaining.

Ironically, it all backfired as Bristol went on to win although the Shoguns's may lose the services of their England prop to suspension for a considerable period.