By Ian Todd
December 29 2013

A comfortable win for Bristol saw the home side go to the top of the table at the end of 2013.  Despite Bristol's dismal league record against the visitors and an early scare, Bristol had far too much power up front, and organisation behind, for the visitors.  The only real match-up was in the teams' colours which were far too similar!  Requests to the officials for a change of shirts were ignored.  Fortunately it didn't rain or we would have had even less idea than normal what was going on.

Bristol kicked off the game on a lovely, winter Saturday afternoon.  How nice to be playing on a Saturday.  It didn’t look so nice moments later when Matt Williams fielded the kick and raced down the wing to the edge of the Bristol five metre line.  Can anyone explain the reasoning behind wanting to play an open running game and letting go one of the fastest players we’ve ever had?  In any event, Bristol took the ball more methodically upfield with a nice break from Auguy Slowik on his league debut and some good work from the pack.  Sadly the move broke down with a clumsy knock-on in the Moseley 22.

The Moseley scrum looked under real pressure but Lawrence somehow managed to control the ball and romped into the Bristol half through some poor tackling before Slowik showed his more experienced colleagues how it should be done.  Bristol were penalised and Moseley stole a page from the Bristol play-book and kicked for touch.  Unlike some of Bristol’s recent efforts the lineout catch-and-drive was well executed and Buckley was driven over for an unconverted try.

Bristol tried to hit back and two penalties enabled Nicky Robinson to edge Bristol down to the visitors’ five metre line.  In contrast to Moseley Bristol made a hash of the lineout and were reduced to some ineffectual huffing and puffing.  Eventually Rhys Lawrence did make it over the line, but it was obvious he was held up by the defence.  This poor display was soon forgotten when a great break from Nick Koster saw him burst into space.  Robinson was up in support and looked around, in turn, for someone on hand to help him out.  Eventually realising that he was on his own, he put his head down and just had enough pace to get in right in the corner.  He was unable to convert his try so the score stood at five-all.

Moseley were dealt a self-inflicted wound when Powell was yellow-carded for a stupidly obvious offence (in the sense that you could see it from the other side of the pitch).  Bristol nearly took advantage soon after when play was switched from left to right and Andy Short had a dart for the line, only to be forced into touch.  However, another mistake from Moseley, this time a not-straight and, crucially, not five metres lineout throw, gave Bristol a free kick.  Quick thinking and a lovely dummy from Robinson allowed the fly-half just enough space to wriggle through under the posts.  He made no mistake with this kick to take Bristol into half-time leading 12 – 5.

An early penalty in the second half to Moseley was, bizarrely, kicked over the posts.  Apparently you get three points for this and the visitors were just four points behind with most of the half to play.  In contrast, Bristol continued to go for touch and also continued to make a bit of a mess of things.  Despite which they somehow managed to keep the pressure on Moseley.  A well-executed forward drive sucked in the defence and a fine long pass reached Watkins out on the wing.  He still had plenty to do, but showed great finishing skills to touch down in the corner for an unconverted try.

A sudden break from Short threw the Moseley defence into confusion and took play well into the visitors’ 22.  Bristol kept up the pressure and a defensive mix-up (Moseley seemed to stop playing, were they expecting the referee to whistle?) allowed Watkins to step in off the wing to cruise in beneath the posts.  The bonus point try was converted to take Bristol into a comfortable looking 24 – 8 lead.

The Moseley restart went out on the full, thanks to smart thinking from Watkins and this was a real setback for them as they tried to hit back.  They struggled to make headway and a couple of defensive lapses allowed them to make some progress before they gave away a soft penalty that relieved the pressure.  The lineout throw was not straight, but the Moseley scrum was even worse and Bristol emerged with a penalty.  The Moseley defence became very disorganised as Bristol battered away and another good long pass out to the right from Robinson found Slowik in space who dotted down for a try that left the final score at 29 – 8.