By Doug Mack-Dodds
January 6 2004

Welcome to Henley, a little town on the banks of the Thames, famous for its regatta, a few posh wine-bars, & a large number of tanned blonde women in fake fur-coats. Henley attracts a load of tourists in summer but on saturday all the tourists seemed to come from Bristol & were wearing navy & white! Hopes were high. A few predictions from Bris fans in and around the ground (the Coach and horses pub to name but one), suggested that we were expecting a good win, and dare we say it, a bonus point again, to cement a strong position mid-table to take into the new year. (Henley are a proud side, with history, and ex-members such as Clive Woodward and Matthew Pinsent, but before the game were lying third from bottom and somewhat struggling). The unofficial attendance was put at 1700, but surely 1500 of those were made up of away support- a huge roar went up when our boys took to the field, and a polite hand-clap, when the yellow-jerseyed hawks ran onto "Dry Leas". We started well enough, our backs seemed up for battle, and we looked odds-on to score the first try after only 3 minutes. Some quick hands on the hawks 22 were possibly a bit too quick, and an opportunity was lost when we decided to practice some juggling in the bitterly cold conditions. No matter. we had started nicely. Sure enough, we DID score the first try on 7 minutes. A beautiful line-out on the Hawks 5m line, a great feed from Saul and a wonderful leap and quick hands from Ollie Hodge provided us with good quick possession. Rob Higgitt scored after a short pass from Danny Gray and we were well worth our lead. Gray duly converted, and after 7 minutes we were 7-0 up. This looked promising! It did not take long for Henley to level the game though.On 13 minutes, the ever-dangerous Hawks left wing, Ali James, stunned the away support, by making a 50m lightning break down his wing,(the Hawks #11 looked threatening throughout the game),into the Bristol 22 and offloading to his blindside, Jeff Atkinson. The Hawks #6 was looking to pass inside to his centre, Rusty Osman, for what was going to be a near-certain try. Frantic Bristol defence ended then, when Marko Stanojevic took Osman out early, (blatantly, I'm afraid), and a penalty try was justly awarded. Barry Reeves, the Henley stand-off just about managed the most simple of conversions under the posts, and after 13 minutes, we were all square at 7-7. Up until that point, Bristol seemed to be pretty well in control. From 15 minutes though, up until the last 5 in the match, the Henley players turned the tables, and we were never in control, or leading again. Whilst Henley did not look as though they could score at will, the Hawks forwards took the battle to Bristol, and refused to bend under any pressure- yellow #6 (Atkinson), and #4 (Winterbottom), especially stood out in this respect. Very often quicker to the breakdown, they snuffled up basic errors from Bristol. That said, the Henley Hawks were often bending the rules, or at least playing on the ragged edge. There seemed to be plenty of unpunished offsides (more and more prevalent in the game these days?), a lot of infringing around the rucks and a couple of blatant forward passes which the linesmen nor the ref seemed to pick up! The (almost obligatory) cry of "BRING BACK STEVE LANDER!" was picking up volume amongst the Bri s fans. It didn't help our cause when we made an awful lot of basic errors. A couple of missed touches from penalties from us, and a seeming inability of our new full back, Brett Davey, to do much with his possession apart from kick into the middle of the park, often kicking poorly and straight down the throats of the hungrier Hawks. This was meat and drink to the Henley backs, and sure enough, a poor decision and poor execution of that decision by Davey, a punt into waiting Henley hands led to the Hawks second try. Ali James ran powerfully aroud Marko, and THROUGH Davey, to touch down to make it 12-7. Barry Reeves missed the conversion, so 12-7 it remained. This was starting to look more and more like a "London Welsh sort of game", rather than the "Exeter game" we had hoped for. A few scrappy lineouts later, and a Paul Hodgson bloodbin injury on 43 minutes, and the inanely grinning (WHY?!) referee Nigel Higginson blew for the interval.Henley 12 Bristol 7. We had some seious questions to answer in the second half and we hoped the ref would listen to our cries also.... It started sleeting in the interval. Whether (no pun intended) or not this was why Saul dropped the Hawks kick off at the re-start, is open to question. but it led to a Henley penalty, the stand-off slotted it, and 2 minutes into the second half we were suddenly down by over a score, 15-7. Paul Hodgson came back on shortly afterwards, sporting a fetching white scrum cap, after being sorted out during the break, in the bloodbin. Unfortunately, this seemed to make little difference to our error count and lack of tactical nous. Once again, Davey in particular, was having trouble finding his feet. I guess this is one debut he would rather forget. Davey was by no means alone though. Cliches they may be, but the Bristol backs seemed to lack pace on the day, nobody was coming from deep, and every Bristol attack seemed static and flat. We were still in the game though. Henley were not about to finish us off, and Danny Gray made it very close, after slotting two penalties, when the ref eventually did give us the odd decision. Mr.Higginson was still grinning though, and preferred a verbal slap on the wrist to positive action and a sinbinning of a Hawk for "hands in"We were still very much in the game and wanted a strong ref.
Martin Haag went off after 65 mins, to be replaced by the 2nd Ollie, Koln. One minute after that, and after toying with the self-destruct button for most of the match, we pretty-well pressed it home. A penalty awarded to Henley was advanced 10 after we had stupidly hacked the ball away in frustration. This was nicely in Reeves' range (Henley stand-off), it was duly kicked. We were 18-13 down with 13 minutes left, with no-one really to blame but ourselves for failing to control our frustration at the ref. Marsden and Hilton went off with ten minutes to go. We were holding onto a slim hope that our superior fitness would tell in the closing few minutes.  It nearly did. And FINALLY, FINALLY, on 80 minutes, the wonderful Mr.Higginson sinbinned the Hawks #19, Hayman, (replacement flanker), for constant infringement. (EIGHTY MINUTES)! It was a case of too little, too late from both Bristol and the ref. A final rally in the last 5 minutes had come to nothing, and we had lost 18-13 to the Henley Hawks at "Dry (but sleety and frrreezing) Leas". One solitary bonus point was our only reward- NOT what we had hoped for or expected. Granted, we didnt deserve to win, but Henley didn't really, either.We played into their hands and they played well enough to capitalise on that to secure four solid points.  
If this match has taught us anything, it has reminded us, once again, that our three-year plan to make a glorious return to the premiership, is certainly achievable, but it MAY WELL be long and cold three years, as this blip in the cold at Henley has proved. There were some good performances- Saul was good generally, and Hodge was great in the lineout, but we have a long, long way to go. Onwards and upwards.....