By Ian Todd
April 18 2015

Bristol finished the regular home season with a 100% record and the umpteenth try-scoring bonus point.  But looked so far from a promotion winning side it was unbelievable.  The first half, in particular, was littered with errors and a defence that was scarcely worthy of the name.  The return of aimless and unchased kicks was especially unwelcome.  Credit to Jersey, who came to play.  And it was, despite the many faults on view, an entertaining and involving match.  But I'd be much happier to see a side that could totally snuff out any threat from a game, but limited, side.

Jersey kicked off proceedings in near perfect conditions and Bristol had a near perfect start.  Craig Hampson kicked ahead and the ball was claimed by Olly Robinson who fed out to Jack Tovey on the wing before the ball was switched back to Matthew Morgan who wove through a flat-footed defence on a marvellous run and then popped the ball to Charlie Amesbury for the opening try with just two minutes played.

If that was a great start for Bristol, the restart was completely missed by any Bristol player and Jersey seized the opportunity to put the hosts under pressure, they fashioned an overlap out left but couldn’t make it over the line before switching play over to the right wing for former Bristol favourite Otto to sprint over in the corner.  All square after five minutes of breathless action.

Bristol tried to strike back and were helped by a clumsy Jersey knock-on in their 22.  Very strangely the ball was put in straight and neither hooker, in the modern fashion, were able to strike for it.  John Pullin would be outraged.  After a moment’s static play the mammoth Jersey pack contrived to nudge forward a few centimetres and were awarded the put in.  This scrum promptly collapsed and Anthony Perenise was penalised for binding incorrectly.  From the other side it looked as if Jersey could have been penalised for collapsing the scrum or for binding on the arm, but hey ho.  In any event Bristol kept the pressure on the visiting side and were rewarded when they were penalised for offside.  As I’ve been asking for since he joined, Gavin Henson stepped up to take the kick and edged Bristol back in front.

This restart was well-taken by Bristol and the forwards put in a good drive.  Awarded the scrum, the feed was as ridiculously squint as most scrum put-ins but it did mean that the ball went in and then was rapidly out.  The Bristol backline took full advantage of the quick ball and excellent passing and movement freed Morgan for another fine, arcing,  run that culminated in his second try, converted by Henson.

Great work that was completely undone by a stupid penalty that allowed Jersey to kick for touch.   The catch and drive went in.  It didn’t seem that well set, but the Jersey forwards, particularly the back five, really did look much bigger than the Bristol opposition and they rumbled over for a converted try.  This was swiftly followed by a loose kick from Morgan that was gathered by Penberthy who ran back at what I suppose I have to call the ‘defence’.  In truth it was more like a group of men holding their arms out or falling over and it needed something more robust if it was going to stop Otto.  Unsurprisingly, it didn’t, and he went over for his second try of the evening.  The conversion took Jersey into a 15 – 19 lead.

Bristol looked both lethargic and rattled.  A good long touch finder briefly settled the nerves, but the catch and drive from the lineout struggled to make much headway and the effort to make ground by kicking was charged down (I lost count of the charge downs last night, there were at least four from Bristol and Jersey added a couple.  Very poor).   A kick ahead looked pretty aimless, as did far too much of the kicking from Bristol, but it was rescued by some determined play from Tovey but his hard work came to nothing when the ball was tamely knocked on when it was moved away from the breakdown.

Once again Bristol had ended the first half of a game behind.  Offhand, I can only think of two home games when we haven’t been in that position.  The supporters could only hope for a familiar turnaround in fortunes.  Jersey gave away an early penalty, only for Henson to kick his effort dead.   The visitors then gave away another and this time he was spot on with his kick to the opposite corner.  Bristol claimed the lineout but couldn’t manage to muscle their way over.  The referee appeared to signal that the ball was held up but then gave the put in at the scrum to Jersey.   Still, Bristol were territorially dominant at this point and Jersey just could not find a way to ease the pressure.   Pressure which soon told when a cross-field kick from Morgan was collected by Amesbury, who powered over.  Henson’s conversion took Bristol back in front at 22 – 19.

Jersey were swiftly back at Bristol and an attempted clearance kick was charged down.   Morgan darted back to recover the ball and had the boldness to dance his way along the Bristol try line before eluding the attackers and then deciding to kick.  There was no sign of a chase from Bristol and Penberthy took the ball under no pressure whatsoever and neatly stroked over a drop-goal to equalise the score.  Jersey clearly sensed that Bristol were vulnerable and a foolish penalty gave them the chance to kick for territory.  This time it was their pack who drove from five metres out.  They powered their way well over the Bristol line but, very surprisingly, they were apparently unable to get the ball down.  I have no idea why, there was a large chunk of metalwork in the way.  The referee signalled that the ball was held up and then gave Bristol the put in at the scrum.  A scrum at which Bristol were then awarded a free kick.   Henson’s effort was launched straight down the middle of the pitch and made tremendous distance.   Bristol showed that they were capable of chasing a kick, putting the Jersey defence under pressure that led to the award of an eminently kickable penalty.  The unexpected decision, to the horror of many in the crowd, was to go for touch.   It was proved the right decision though when the pack promptly drove over and replacement Jack Lam touched down.

Bristol tried to push further ahead and another long touch finder gave them a good attacking platform but they were penalised when driving for the line.   However, Jersey then gave away a penalty of their own and, shockingly, the decision was to go for the posts.  If anyone can explain the process by which these choices are made I would love to hear.  Anyway, the kick was successful and it took Bristol to a 30-22 lead.

The penalty conceded by Jersey was the result of their 4 coming round the wrong side at the ruck and then kicking the ball.  Fair enough, except that he had done virtually the same thing at several rucks before.  But at least he had finally been picked up for it.  However, a Bristol player then did exactly the same thing right in front of the referee.  He was so offside it was ridiculous.  But not as ridiculous as the referee promptly signalling that he ball was out and waving play on.   I don’t like to criticise officials, it is a tough job, but some of these decisions just seemed entirely arbitrary (for both sides).  I sort of don’t mind the weird decisions so long as they are consistently weird.  These definitely weren’t.

Bristol weren’t going to argue about it though and they speedily moved over on to the attack, eventually putting Jersey under tremendous pressure on their own line.  They had the ball but didn’t seem to know what to do and the indecision cost them dearly when the ball seemed to be patted forward in the hands of Henson, who plunged over beneath the posts for a converted try.

With time almost up Jersey kicked a great penalty to touch right on the five metre line.  The lineout was claimed and we were treated the wonderful sight of a fourteen man maul with a solitary figure left out wide.  A try seemed inevitable but it was in the slightly surprising form of a penalty try as the referee trotted beneath the posts.  I have no idea what for, he was on the other side from me and again there was some white metalwork in the way of some of the action.  Frankly, whatever happened can’t really have stopped a try being scored because they were still moving forward but he was closer to the action than me.  This brought up the try-scoring bonus point for Jersey and back into losing bonus point range.  However, sadly for them, the final points went to Bristol with a penalty with the last kick of the game to leave the final score at 40 – 29.