By Ian Todd
February 9 2014

I dragged along an old friend for her first ever game of rugby and she saw a game in which Bristol eventually triumphed, but made hard work of things along the way.  There was some good play from the visitors, combined with some passing that simply gave the ball to Bedford, who made the most of the chances they were given.  And that was the point really, it was sloppy mistakes from Bristol that allowed Bedford compete.  At one point it looked as if they would hand victory to the hosts, and you wouldn't really have argued with that - Bedford stuck to their guns and Bristol played, at times with a lack of precision that could have been their undoing.  Fortunately, there is enough flair and, eventually, intelligence in the side to close out the game.  A game that took Bristol in third place, and would have taken them top but for a points deduction.

In lovely and rather unexpected conditions, Bristol kicked off.  Bedford cleared to 30 metres out and managed to claim the Bristol lineout.  However, this meant they had to try to play out of their own 22, a task made far too easy when Bristol were penalised and the hosts cleared.  An excellent touch finder from Bedford further pinned Bristol back in their own half and the lineout was again something of a mess.  Bedford swept forward, only to knock on with the Bristol defence in some disarray.  In contrast to the lineout, the scrum was imperious and Bedford were shoved powerfully back and duly penalised.

The penalty was dispatched to halfway.  A good initial drive was enough to fix the defence and the excellent Ben Glynn broke into space then fed Ross Rennie who, in turn, popped the ball to George Watkins to slither over in the corner for an unconverted try.  This effort was swiftly followed by a great try from Luke Eves who hammered his way over following some nice work from Nick Koster.  This time Nicky Robinson’s attempted conversion struck the left hand upright.

A scrum against the head for Bristol came to naught with some casual looking play, but Bedford’s woes were soon compounded when Burke was shown yellow.  Bristol chose to scrum five metres out, there were a couple of resets, a couple more penalties, surely a penalty try was on its way?  In fact, no.  Instead it was more casual play from Bristol that gifted possession to the hosts and allowed them to clear the danger.  Not for long though.  Bristol claimed the resulting lineout, swept the ball across the field and Koster showed great strength to score another unconverted try, but 0 – 15 to Bristol.

Bristol looked good value for the lead, with Bedford scarcely having been in their visitors’ half.  Bedford had other ideas though and finally managed to put Bristol under sustained pressure with some purposeful driving play though the Bristol midfield.  Shocking ‘tackling’ when the rush defence misfired allowed Bedford to go close and they held on to possession before Sherriff managed to wriggle over for a converted try.  Two visits to the Bristol half and one try.  A good rate of return that soon became even better when terrible passing from Bristol saw the ball go loose and hacked downfield for Morris to pick up and score.  The conversion made it 14 - 15 at half time.

Bristol started the second half in similar style to how they finished the first with dreadful passing giving Bedford the chance to kick downfield.  Watkins rescued the situation, but Bristol were penalised.  The eminently kickable effort was wide of the target and Bristol escaped the consequences of some poor quality play.

Bedford looked by far the sharper side and some slick handling took play across the pitch from right to left and Morris sneaked in out in the far corner for an unconverted try that took Bedford in front for the first time in the game.

Bristol struggled to impose themselves on the game, but made dogged progress into the hosts’ half.  Bedford were penalised and Bristol, true to form, chose to ignore the kick at goal.  A decision that was promptly vindicated when the drive from the lineout smashed over the line for Kyle Traynor to dot down.  Replacement Adrian Jarvis was surprisingly off target with the conversion attempt, but Bristol were back in front by a solitary point.

Once more Bedford came back at Bristol, now down a man after Andy Short was sin-binned for a tip-tackle.   Good work in the loose from Rhys Lawrence was undone by some more unsympathetic passing.  The Bristol replacements Mitch Eadie and Glen Townson were putting in some powerful runs against a tiring Bedford defence, but some of the Bristol passing was of a fairly low standard and gave Bedford the chance to attack off spilled ball.   Fortunately, Bristol managed to tighten things up.  Jarvis calmed things down and started to orchestrate some patient play and his neat offload allowed Watkins to display his speed and strength to go over for a converted (!) try.

Despite some Bedford supporters already heading for the exits, Bristol realised that the game was still on and continued to press forward.  I don’t know if a team really notices what the crowd is doing, but I can’t help but think that Bedford had switched off.  Bristol hadn’t and Ben Mosses capitalised by hurtling over at the very death, leaving the score at a comfortable looking 19 – 32.  But sometimes the scoreboard doesn’t tell the whole truth.