By Alan Saul
March 24 2014

A pulsating encounter saw Bristol come away with five points and the hosts claim a losing bonus point. Bristol dominated much of the game, with the forward pack in excellent form, but the final ten minutes belong to Leeds as they staged a thrilling comeback

Bristol took an early lead when the Bristol forwards mauled their way over the line following a penalty kick arrogantly kicked to touch, Ross Rennie claiming the touchdown.  The gap was narrowed soon after when Hughes kicked a penalty goal.  His later effort came off the posts, before Bristol increased their lead further.  Nicky Robinson kicked another penalty to the corner and again the pack sucked in the defence to give Ruki Tipuna the space to scamper over for a converted try.

Robinson showed his attacking skills by racing into space and offloading to the supporting Nick Koster who scored beneath the posts.  Robinson duly converted.  Leeds despite these quickfire blows Leeds remained determined and Hughes struck another penalty before showing great strength to hammer over following some good attacking play.

The second half started in great fashion for Bristol with Tipuna claiming the bonus point try.  Luke Eves made good ground and the pack followed up in support.  Tipuna, alert as always, broke clear to dot down beneath the post to give his side an imposing 13 – 28 lead.

Leeds had by no means given up, but struggled to maintain any continuity in the face of determined defence and laboured in the set-piece.

Their efforts looked in vain when another penalty lineout saw Tipuna go close before Gaston Cortes smashed over the line for his first try for Bristol.  Robinson’s conversion struck the upright.

It then appeared that everything was over for the hosts with two yellow cards in quick succession.  Given the proximity to the line a penalty try might even have been the result, but Bristol must surely have thought a try would shortly be in the offing.

In fact the scrum was very poor for the attacking side and Leeds were rejuvenated.  Bristol must have taken their collective foot off the gas as the match was transformed.  First Jack Tovey saw yellow for tackling the man without the ball.  Then excellent attacking play saw Holms score a converted try.  The very next move saw them over the line again and a good offload out of the tackle to Rowan brought up another converted try and the losing bonus point.  Indeed, Leeds sensed an astonishing win might be a possibility, but the visitors regrouped and controlled possession for the remainder of the match before Adrian Jarvis hoofed the ball into touch with time up.