By Ian Todd
March 7 2015

Bristol broke a half century of points and scored eight tries in a fine victory over a side fighting for a place in the pray-offs.  For the first 15 minutes there was the same lack of precision in attack that has been worryingly familiar this season.  But the defence looked better organised and urgent before conceding a close-range try to go behind.  And then Bristol cut loose, claiming the bonus point before the half was out, in a series of sharp and clinical attacks.  Nottingham never looked like finding a way back.

Observed from the unfamiliar and deeply uncomfortable Upper Williams (with posts conveniently located to obscure the action), Bristol had by far the better of the opening exchanges but without ever managing to click.  Surely by this stage of the season a side with Premiership aspirations should have slick, precise moves?  But something wasn’t quite right, inaccurate passing and moves not quite coming off.  The first points came from a straightforward Matthew Morgan penalty, swiftly equalised by one from Eden.

The opening try followed when Bristol’s handling and running lines finally synchronised.  Mitch Eadie burst into space, offloading to Morgan.  The outside half fed Gavin Henson who flipped the ball out to David Lemi who switched the ball back inside to Gareth Maule who powered over the line.

Once again I’m forced to write that Bristol promptly conceded points after dominating play and then scoring.  Initially it was just a soft penalty which was kicked for touch, but as soon as the drive went in a try looked inevitably and Ma’afu claimed the honours.  The conversion was well struck and the visitors were in front.  If Bristol had stuck to form they would have been content to leave things like that for the rest of the half, but this side was playing to a different script.

Bristol struck back almost immediately.  Morgan sliced through the defence, once more to Henson who released Lemi for a well taken try.   Even better was to follow just minutes later when the oft-criticised Bristol defence pressured Nottingham into coughing up possession into the hands of Maule who sprinted into space before Lemi latched onto his neat pass to go over untouched.

Just before half time Bristol scored the bonus point try when a superb kick from Morgan (no matter how it worked out it was going to cause the Nottingham defence huge problems) bobbled around in the corner and, with the defence having to turn and scramble back, Maule sprinted in, grasped the ball, and dived low over the line with defenders clutching at him.  The officials conferred briefly but there was no doubt it was a great try.

Maule was over for his hat-trick in the second half when a lovely pass from Henson opened up the defence for his centre partner to lope over.  All of this possession was the result of good work from the pack, so it was only fitting that the next score was all from the forwards.  A succession of drives to the visitors’ line was finally thwarted by pulling it down and Davey was shown yellow.  Seconds later Jack Lam smashed his way through the defence for a converted try.

Lemi completed the second hat-trick of the evening when he was set free in acres of space by replacement Craig Hampson.  There was no way he could fail to score with that much room for manoeuvre and he duly obliged.   The scoring wasn’t over for Bristol when replacement Ben Mosses raced onto a nice pop pass on a great line.  He shrugged off the initial tackle and went in under the posts.  The scoring wasn’t over for the night though.  Nottingham at last has some possession and went through several phases.  The Bristol defensive effort, not surprisingly, lacked some of its earlier intensity but still coped reasonably well as the visitors crept ever closer aided by a succession of penalties.  At the death Porter (on loan from Worcester) crossed for a converted try that must have been scant consolation.