By David Hibell
February 7 2005

Mark Woodrow's home debut didn't have the most auspicious of starts with the first kick of the match going straight into touch but he regathered his game to end the day with six out of seven kicks at goal.

Bristol showed their intent from the start with a great burst up the middle from 

Sam Cox was rewarded with a penalty in the Nottingham twenty two, Woodrow 

going for the corner rather than the easy three points.  The adventure was 

rewarded with Marko Stanojevic going over in the corner to open the scoring

in the seventh minute and Nottingham must be glad they won't be facing 

Marko again for a while as he took his tally against them for the season to nine

tries with two further tries in the game to give him his hat trick.

 

It wasn't all plain sailing though as Nottingham took the game to Bristol forcing 

the Shoguns to defend for long periods.  This Nottingham side were 

unrecognisable from the team we saw earlier in the year and they enjoyed long

spells of territorial advantage and possession.

 

The Bristol defence were able to hold firm though and ended the day with zero 

points conceded, only the sixth time they have achieved this feat in league rugby.

 

The extent of the pressure they were exerting saw a change of tactics in the 

thirty first minute when Woodrow kicked a penalty to put Bristol 10-0 up, 

though this was the last penalty attempt at goal in the match.  That isn't to say 

that Nottingham didn't have the chance to go for goal, but they too showed an 

adventurous side opting for lineouts each time they had a penalty.

 

Unfortunately for Nottingham the second Bristol try came from a Nottingham 

line out after they had opted not to go for goal, the throw going straight to Joe

El-Abd who raced upfield offloading to Sam Cox who gave the scoring pass 

to Sean Marsden to touch down in the corner, Woodrow again converting.

 

The Bristol back three were in concert for the third Bristol try, that man 

Stanojevic again getting the touch down and Bristol were now looking for the 

bonus point, a chip ahead to the corner on the stroke of half time just going 

begging despite Marsden's best efforts to try and get the touchdown.

 

There was no sign of the gritty effort from Nottingham waning after half time, 

Jim Brownrigg stealing the line out when Nottingham again kicked to the 

corner after a penalty, but Bristol turned the ball over and were forced to 

bundle the Nottingham players into touch on the left wing.  Ball retention 

was proving to be a problem as Nottingham were able to steal the ball after 

Bristol had mauled twenty yards up the pitch from the line out.

 

Richard hill made the first change on the hour with Owen Evans replacing 

Bernardo Stortoni, Sean Marsden reverting to full back and Owen made 

an immediate impact on the left wing making good ground on his first touch of 

the ball up the centre of the field, setting up a maul from which Ross Blake 

scampered over but the try was disallowed due to a knock on.

 

Rik Martin-Redman then made a welcome return to the team replacing Jim 

Brownrigg who had performed an excellent job around the park and Bristol 

didn't have to wait long after that for the bonus point, Mark Woodrow going 

over in the left corner.

Woodrow converts his own try.

Shortly after this Nottingham had their best chance of the match, seeing that 

Marko was out of position Kevin Brennan chipped to the left corner for Warren 

Coles, but the Nottingham winger was not able to gather the ball successfully 

and knocked on.  

 

With the bonus point secured there were a flurry of substitutions from Richard Hill, 

with long term absentee Wayne Thompson replacing Dave Hilton, Hentie Martens 

replacing Ross Blake and Chris Morgan coming on for Joe El-Abd.

 

Marko completed his hat trick in the seventy third minute with a move starting 

from a great turn over by Owen Evans who tore the ball from his opposite 

number before spreading the ball right for the flying winger to score in the corner.  

Mark Woodrow was unsuccessful with the conversion attempt, his first place 

kick miss of the match.

 

As Nottingham tired the Bristol pack camped in their half and the final try came 

from Rik Martin-Redman who dove over from the base of a scrum after Bristol 

had had a succession of scrums and mauls on the Nottingham line.

 

the final score Bristol 43 Nottingham 0, but the Nottingham team should take 

great heart from their performance and should feel aggrieved not to have scored