Bristol claim the ball

By Ian Todd & Sian Davies Todd
October 29 2012

Bristol showed a determination not seen so far this season to wrench the match away from the visitors. Crucially, they increased the pace and intensity of the game when reduced to 14 men and stunned Bedford with some excellent play that was deservedly capped with a goodtry. Still lots of stuff to work on, but well played Bristo:l a deserved 23 - 13 victory

Bedford kicked off just as the rain began to fall more heavily (which is why this report may well have some bits missing as the notepad gets put away when it starts to get to wet).  The first scrum soon followed and broke up with some acrimony.  A straightforward penalty to Bedford and the reliable Pritchard sent his side into an early lead.  The following play was inconclusive with both sides making mistakes and struggling in the set-piece.  However it was Bristol who seemed to be coping better with the conditions with some strong attacking play through the backs and some good driving from the forwards.  In contrast Bedford, who often seem to struggle to adapt to rainy conditions (rugby union is a winter game, you know) and have to wait until half-time to change their game plan, had chosen to kick rather than keep the ball in hand.  Frankly they didn’t look at all comfortable with that style of play.

It certainly appeared that Bristol had the upper hand, but despite the possession they were unable to unlock the visitors defence.  Finally, after sustained pressure, and a long break for a Bedford injury, Tristan Roberts was able to step up and equalise the score.  The amount of hard work Bristol had to put in for the scant reward of three points was slightly ominous.  And it looked as if the omens were right when, as the rain fell even more heavily, Bedford abandoned the kick-chase game and seized upon loose ball and chose to play what was actually in front of them.  And what was in front was…nothing. The familiar space in the 10/12 channel had opened up once more and the Bedford winger was able to sprint clear.  Individual defenders were unable to halt the initial surge, despite some valiant efforts.  At last he was hauled down by a desperate pull on the shirt, but the simplest of offloads to Pritchard meant the captain scored and converted to take Bedford to a 3 – 10 lead with half an hour gone.

Bedford now looked by far the sharper side but the defence, chastened by the earlier lapse was just equal to the task, aided by some handling errors.  At the close of the half it was instead Bristol who were in a scoring position and Roberts, importantly, narrowed the gap to 6 – 10.

Bristol kicked-off the second half in positive style with some brave play by Jack Tovey and had an early penalty chance from just inside the Bedford half.  Sadly, Roberts’ effort was well short.  Bristol kept up the pressure and a good maul from the pack broke down into a messy ruck.  The ball went loose and Jack Gadd, excellent throughout (and taking a lot of punishment too),  pounced and made good ground before passing on to the supporting Luke Eves (take that, critics) who powered on to score a fine converted try.  Bristol deserved the lead and soon extended it, with another Roberts’ penalty, to 16-10.

Bedford had to respond, and they strove manfully, but ineffectually.  Perhaps too anxious their handling let them down at crucial moments.  The tenacious defence was also a major contributor, halting moves with aggressive tackling, forcing play laterally; and then smothering the Bedford attack out wide when they had no room for manoeuvre.  Unfortunately the good work appeared to be undone when Kyle Traynor was rather harshly yellow-carded (harshly in the sense that Bedford had given away three penalties in quick succession in the first half for being on the wrong side but there was no sign of a card being shown, all you’d really like to see from the referee is some consistency).  Pritchard did the honours and closed the gap to 16 – 13.

Bristol now took the game to the visitors in an excellent display of ferocious play, good driving from the forwards, fine support and a speed of thought and deed that left Bedford floundering.  It culminated in a well merited try when Gadd again made inroads into the Bedford defence and Eves was on hand to show his experience to score his second try of the match.  Replacement Adrian Jarvis conversion kick looked destined to drift wide and  then drop short but it did neither and Bristol claimed the spoils at 23 – 13.