London Welsh

By Huw Davies
March 27 2011

Bristol collapsed to a humiliating 54 - 9 defeat.  Seven tries to none tells the story and Bristol had little to offer against the exiles and have now conceded 141 points in the three play-off games whilst scoring just 49.

Bristol got off to a deceptively good start when, with Welsh a man down, the pack mauled its way down field and could only be stopped illegally.  Mark Davies kicked the penalty for a 0 - 3 lead.  As so often, Bristol then gave away easy points immediately after scoring.  The defence opened up for Beach to trot over without a hand laid on him.  The conversion was wide of the mark but the hosts had a  two point lead without having had to do very much. 

In fairness, Bristol did have a lot of early possession but lacked any invention or cutting edge to make use of it and the Welsh defence was easily able to cope with the little threat Bristol offered.  In contrast Welsh were clinical in seizing their opportunities and pounced on loose ball to free Gibson to sprint over beneath the posts for a converted try and a 12 - 3 lead. 

London Welsh now kicked on and the Bristol defence began to creak alarmingly.  A penalty was the initial result, shortly cancelled out by another Davies effort following some valiant work by the pack.  However, this was just a brief glimmer of brightness before the dark and  Bristol contrived to make things easier for their hosts when Iain Grieve saw yellow on his return from suspension.  Surprisingly there was no further score in the first half and even another guttering of the flame with a nice run from George Watkins.

The second half saw Welsh quickly extend their lead with another penalty and Bristol loose Mariano Sambucetti to the sin-bin.  Davies hit another penalty to narrow the gap to 18 - 9.  But that was it from Bristol.  Ross soon cancelled out this effort and the hosts then piled on the misery with Bristol seemingly clueless and outclassed.  Powell went over in the corner after a sweeping move.  Drauniniu hammered through weak tackling for the bonus-point try and a 33 - 9 lead.  

The pain continued for Bristol when Thomas danced through even weaker tackling.  Claassens seized hold of a Bristol defensive kick to romp over the line and Pittman added the coup de grace as Bristol were finally put out of their misery at 54 - 9.