By Ian Todd
January 13 2015

2015 started with a 55 - 18 victory in front of a record regular season Championship crowd of 10,701 (which represents over three-quarters of the total league attendence of one Premiership club and exceeds the totals for all the rest of the Championship clubs except Bedford and Worcester).  It was a long way from a perfect performance however.  Nine tries were scored, yes, but the defence continued to be far from secure.  Nevertheless Bristol continue unbeaten this season.  What we wouldn't give for that to remain true.

Plymouth kicked off the first game of 2015 in overcast and blustery conditions and were quickly down to the Bristol five metre line (through some pretty ineffective tackling it must be said.  The same player missed at least another three one-on-one tackles in the rest of the game and they cost us points).  Nicky Robinson cleared to touch and the ball was clearly touched in-flight by a Plymouth player but the lineout was awarded to the visitors.  The ball was played quickly and Albion drove forward, a clear forward pass missed by the officials who were very poorly positioned, and Bristol gave away a very kickable penalty.  Cusack was, however, well off target with his effort.

Bristol regrouped after this slightly frenetic opening burst with the forwards taking a firm grip.  A couple of good scrums and a penalty took play well into the visitors’ 22.  The catch and drive move went in and Albion’s defence was shockingly poor and Ryan Jones claimed a straightforward first try in a Bristol shirt.

And have a guess what happened next?  I’ve lost track of how many times I have to write that Bristol give away a soft penalty after scoring or fail to defend the restart and concede cheap points.  Sure enough, Cusack was able to make amends for his earlier miss.

Bristol’s defence continued to look distinctly shaky and Iain Grieve took a loose kick and fed Grace who was allowed to make far too much easy ground, fortunately knocking on just five metres out.  Plymouth were penalised at the scrum but Robinson failed to make touch with his kick.  Albion came back at Bristol and the hosts gave away a penalty virtually in front of the posts.  Cusack obliged with the points to take his side into the lead.

The clear Bristol dominance in the scrum continued and a penalty was despatched to touch.  The lineout wasn’t particularly good but a good drive still made ground and a fine long pass from Robinson was collected by Andy Short who scored in the right corner for 10 – 6.  The pack was again on top when a powerful surge from the scrum saw Jones double his Bristol tally with a good pick-up and touchdown by the posts.  Robinson converted and it was 17 – 6.

Albion struck back quickly with some good lineout work following a penalty to touch.  They pressed hard on the defence, which gave away a couple of penalties, before Langley managed to wrestle the ball over the line for a converted try.  The Bristol restart was out on the full, but the scrum on halfway was never going to be a good source of possession for Plymouth.  With the half virtually at an end, and no time for a lineout, another good scrum saw Olly Robinson run direct and hard to claim the bonus point try and leave the score at 24 – 13.

The forward ascendency continued after the break and Rhys Oakley was shown yellow as the visitors struggled to legally contain the pressure.  Pressure that told immediately when replacement Mitch Eadie went over from the resulting scrum.  Robinson converted to take the score to a healthy, and palindromic, 31 – 13.

It looked as if Plymouth would survive the sin-binning without conceding further points, indeed the Bristol defence was hard put to contain a powerful attack,  but shortly before Oakley’s return a slapped pass gave Gareth Maule enough time and space to score in the left corner.  Matthew Morgan, on for Nicky Robinson, was narrowly short with his conversion attempt.  Albion then kicked the restart out on the full and yet another solid scrum allowed Auguy Slowik to race onto the ball and outpace the defence to touchdown for a converted try.

To their credit the visiting side did not let their heads drop despite trailing 43 – 13 and a further good piece of lineout work saw Cowan-Dickie over for an unconverted try.  The game had turned into an end-to-end affair and Maule was on the score sheet again with a try right in the corner, superbly converted by Morgan.   On the stroke of full time Robinson capitalised on more excellent work from his fellow forwards with another try following a scrum penalty and maul from the resulting lineout.  The final score stood at 55 -18.