Plymouth Albion

By John Wheatley
December 11 2011

Bristol managed a comfortable enough win against Plymouth, although a nasty-looking injury to captain Iain Grieve forced a ten minute break in play during the second half.  in truth, Bristol should have come away with the bonus point, squandering numerous chances

Bristol started at tremendous pace, Ross Johnston powering over, with less than a minute played; finishing off a move started by Jon Goodridge who snaffled a poor Plymouth kick, made great strides through the defence and fed Will Helu.  He, in turn,  set up Johnston for the coup de grâce.   Bristol maintained the scintillating start, Goodridge in particular looking sharp.  He released Jack Tovey for a dangerous run, only for the defence to just manage to haul him into touch.  Fellow wing, George Watkins, also got into the act with a lovely run.  All that was missing from this fine display was more points on the board!

A great pass from Tristan Roberts was, perhaps harshly, called forward but he was soon able to nudge Bristol further in front when his team was awarde a penalty at the consequent scrum.  After this battering, it was inevitable that Plymouth would seek a way back and a strong drive took them close to the Bristol line, only to be frustrated by determined, but illegal, defence.  Love kicked the penalty to bring the score to 3 – 8.  Bristol should have highlighted their dominance just before  half time when Watkins ignored a glaring overlap and went for glory only to be held out.

Bristol came out in the second half in equally bold fashion, but continued to make errors with a score seeming more likely than not.  First Tovey made an excellent break, but his pass out of the tackle was wayward.  Fautua Otto showed his strength as he hammered into the defence, only to lose the ball forward.  Tovey again troubled the hosts, but this time his chip ahead was too long and was covered by the defence.  Roberts finally made the dominance count with another penalty and a 3-11 lead.

At this point there was a long break in play when Iain Grieve suffered what looked a nasty injury when tackled.  He was finally carried from the field on a stretcher.  Play resumed in a manner that the captain would have approved.  Bristol attacked immediately and took play well into the Plymouth 22.  A series of scrums followed, the referee instructing the front rows.  A couple of penalties and resets and, unsurprisingly, the referee trotted behind the posts to award a penalty try.  Roberts converted to take Bristol into a more comfortable 3-18 lead.

Bristol had left it late but edged further in front at the death when Watkins was the grateful recipient of a sloppy Plymouth pass and he sprinted in untouched.  The conversion attempt struck the post, but Bristol had closed out the win.