By David Hibell
October 6 2005

The players pushing for selection in the Guiness Premiership stepped up to the mark leaving the experienced Bath team knowing they had been in a hard match. Many of the players had been features of the promotion winning season and had a point to prove to Richard Hill, that point being they want to play in the Premiership.

Much was made of the fact that Bristol had made fifteen changes and were treating the match as a practise but any Bath supporter expecting a repeat of Bath's record 76-7 win over Bristol, on 29 October 1996, left disappointed, and one would expect relieved that they had managed to scrape a win after they went 10-8 down early in the second half to win by fifteen points.

Bath struggled to break through determined Bristol defence all way through the game with the Bristol players putting their bodies on the line time and time again. At the end of the first half with Joe El Abd in the sin bin Bath had a full five minutes in the Bristol twenty two pressing for the opening try of the match. The commitment from the Bristol players was huge, exemplified by Danny Gray, having stopped one of the Bath second rows just short of the line rising unsteadily to his feet afterwards and seeming to be unsure of how to stand up, let alone which day of the week it was.

Eventually the Bath hooker Pieter Dixon, was able to make the extra man count and Bath went in ahead, but the lead was short lived with Marko Stanojevic eating up the ground after fielding [eventually ;-) ] a Bath clearance early in the second half and making inroads deep into the Bath twenty two. Greg Nicholls was able to pick up the ball at the base of the ruck and dive over through the gap in the Bath defence, with Jason Strange adding the extra points to take the lead.

Bath were able to bank on fly half Barclay to make the kicks in the second after several earlier straightforward misses that must have had them thinking back to the opening league match when he started knocking over kicks from half way and a series of penalties saw Bath stretch away.

Bristol still looked to spread the ball and tackled resolutely throughout but indiscipline meant that Bath were able to squeeze home with a late try at the end by Tom Cheeseman giving the scoreboard a slightly deceptive look.