By Duncan Wood
November 12 2002

David Rees scored in both meetings last season. It'll probably be close this time around as it always seems to be when these two teams meet at the Memorial Stadium. It may come down to kickers - it has done in the past.

One thing is for certain when Bristol entetain London Irish on Sunday. It will be a close affair.

The last three meetings at the Memorial Stadium have resulted in Bristol scoring 73 points and Irish scoring 75. The scores have been 28-26 on 1999-2000, 26-30 in 2000-1 and 19 all in 2001-2.

In the last couple of meetings, Bristol have been punished by the accuracy of the Irish goalkicking. In the 2000-1 game, Bristol scored two tries through Spencer Brown and Paul Johnstone but Jarrod Cunningham landed 10 kicks at goal.

Last season, Irish scored an interception try through Justin Bishop but Bristol scoreed twoce through Borwn (again) and David Rees. However, Barry Everitt saved the day with a penalty 8 (yes eight!) minutes into injury time.

The award of that penalty and the subsequent criticism of it by Dean Ryan landed the then Bristol head coach in deep water.

"It was a disgraceful refereeing appointment - I don't think that he should have had control of the game."

"We lost two points today because the referee was out of his depth."

Dean knew full well that he would probably get into trouble for his remarks when he went on to say:

"I will get a slapped wrist for criticising a referee, but nothing will get done about it."

The outcome was that Deano received a 4 week ban from the touchline and dressing room on match day.

Bristol supporters will be hoping that they are well out of sight as the final whistle approaches and that Irish don't have the chance to kick for a draw or a win!