By Ian Todd
September 7 2014

Bristol opened their account at Ashton Gate with an exciting win against relegated Worcester.  A late penalty kick from Mieres looked to have taken the spoils for the visiting team, but Ben Mosses sprinted clear of a despairing defence to give Bristol the victory

Worcester kicked off the new Championship season at Bristol’s new home with a lovely high ball that the Bristol defence failed to cope with.  The visitors whipped the ball out left and straight into touch to give Bristol a real let off in the initial exchanges.  Worcester kept up this early pressure and the defence worked hard to contain the threats.  The hard work paid off when Worcester knocked on following a penalty lineout.  At this point the Ashton Gate Insect of Omen flew past.  At the Memorial Ground it was the Lucky Bee, clearly at Ashton Gate it is the Lucky Dragonfly. Obviously it was going to be Bristol’s day!

However, it appeared as if the dragonfly was a false omen because Worcester kept up the pressure on Bristol.  Only staunch defence kept them out, but it was good to see how well the defence coped and how individual tackling seemed to have improved on last season.  Well done to coaches and players say I.  The only downside was that the defensive effort meant that Bristol simply didn’t have the ball.  Eventually the pressure told when Bristol went offside and Mieres knocked over the first points of the game.  Initial the scoreboard stood at 0 – 1 before the operator cottoned on to the actual footballing code taking place.

The restart went out on the full to hand the initiative back to Worcester and Bristol were penalised at the resulting scrum.  It was very long range, but Mieres stepped up to have a go at the posts but his effort faded well wide.  Matthew Morgan tried to spark Bristol into attacking life with a fine break followed up by a good touchfinder.  Bristol tried to increase the pace of the game, played in wonderful conditions, and the Worcester defence were treated to the sight of Ian Evans and Anthony Perenise hammering into them at full tilt.  The ball was swung back inside only to be knocked on five metres out.

Worcester hit back almost immediately with some good attacking play of their own (and what looked like a knock on of their own too) and camped on the Bristol line before Williams went over for a converted try confirmed by the TMO.  Worcester gave away a soft penalty at the restart and Morgan made great distance with his kick.  At this point the touch judge, or assistant referee I should say, became involved, pointing out an off the ball incident and Williams was shown a yellow card.  Bristol went on the attack and when the visitors were penalised again Morgan was very sensibly told to go for the posts.  He made no mistake and it was 3 – 10.  Bristol continued to press at the close of the half with a powerful burst from Jack Lam.  Sadly the officials ruled a knock-on even though it clearly came off a Worcester player.  As people trooped down the stairs I commented that we actually looked the better side.  This drew an incredulous look from a descending Worcester supporter, but he missed the bit where I said “when we have the ball”.  The problem for much of the half was that we actually didn’t have the ball all that much.  Fortunately Ryan Jones agreed with me so that’s ok.

Bristol started the second half in fine style with a perfect crossfield kick from Morgan that was well taken by Andy Short to power his way over for an unconverted try.  I’ll say one think for the Lower Dolman: without a dugout in the way you can see right down into the far corner.  Bristol started to look more threatening with Perenise, Jack Tovey (who looked good throughout) and David Lemi combining to punch a hole in the defence.  Once again a knock-on terminated the promising move.  Bristol did well at the consequent scrum and continued to look menacing.  Worcester were penalised and Morgan slotted the points for a score of 11 – 13.  As you might expect, having worked hard for the points, Bristol gave away an easily kickable penalty.

Mieres struck the upright with his effort, but Bristol coped poorly with the rebound and gave away an attacking scrum to Worcester.  The Worcester pack looked ominously powerful and a couple of resets and penalties had many thinking a penalty try was on the cards.  Naturally the next penalty went Bristol’s way and the ball was cleared to general jubilation.   Worcester were undaunted and came right back at Bristol.  A kick ahead went dead from the narrow in-goal area but still Worcester hammered away before the defence cracked to give Mieres a more straightforward penalty chance and 11 – 16.

But Bristol hit back with a brave offload from replacement Adrian Jarvis (I’m not quite sure about that, and I regard checking the recording as cheating somehow) to Lemi who rolled back the years, and the Worcester defence, to dance through space and over for the converted try that took Bristol into the lead for the first time in the game.  Bristol piled into the Worcester defence, sensing that points now might seal the victory.  Sadly, a wayward pass allowed Worcester to break downfield from their own five metre line.  Biggs pounded after the ball but Lemi was on hand in defence to pick up and calmly clear to touch.

Play seemed to swing back Worcester’s way only for them to spill the ball forward and for Bristol to hack the ball ahead.  Worcester were penalised for holding on but Morgan (now at fullback) was unable to add the crucial points as the clock ticked down.  Instead of maintaining possession Bristol kicked the ball away and were then penalised out on the touchline.  Mieres coolly struck the kick that put his side back in front at 18 – 19.  With the clock on 80 minutes it looked all over for Bristol but to their credit they stayed calm, kept hold off the ball and took play to Worcester.  A couple of runs from the forwards sucked in the defence before the ball was somehow smuggled to Ben Mosses out on the left wing who showed tremendous pace to outrace the defence for the decisive score in the last action of the game.  Whew, what a scorcher.