By David Hibell
November 25 2004

A look back at the final in Twickenham of last year, a great end to a season. Win this weekend and the boys will be looking to get there again, but who is to say in which competition? (& a handy way of getting a picture of a back up after the recent front row dominance) For all the one sidedness of the score Bristol did not have their way for large parts of this match & Waterloo must be applauded for the way they stuck at it and didn’t let their heads drop.

Having said that Bristol seemed very comfortable in defence and the backs looked to be by far the most dangerous as was demonstrated with six of the seven tries coming from the backs, five from the wings, and more impressively still, four from one wing, step forward Marco Stanojevic.

Such has Marco’s influence on the last two games now, and his finishing in particular, that I can finally spell his surname without having to look it up in the program!

Early pressure in defence caused Waterloo to make a mistake and Bristol were able to hack the ball on into the Waterloo half where they were forced to clear to touch. Having secured possession at the lineout the ball was spread to the left where a chip ahead for Owen Evans went just too far.

Awarded a penalty Bristol elected to tap and go but the attack was snuffed out around the Waterloo twenty two. Chris Morgan had a charge at the defence and managed to flight the ball away towards Marco Stanojevic, Marco was able to tap the ball to Ollie Hodge who managed to cross the line for the first try but the referee had spotted a knock on and called play back.

Bristol secured possession from the Waterloo scrum and a long pass to Owen Evans on the wing saw the winger cross in the corner, he was able to run around behind the posts to make the conversion easier and Danny Gray made no mistake.

Following more Bristol pressure and Waterloo were forced to concede a penalty on their own twenty two and Danny Gray was able to make it 10-0 after 14 minutes.

Following a rampaging run from Saul Nelson Bristol were awarded another attacking penalty but electing to kick to kick to the corner were disappointed to see the ball go for touch in goal. But relentless Bristol pressure saw the Shoguns take up residence in the Waterloo half and they were able to take advantage of that after twenty one minutes when the referee again penalised Waterloo, this time in front of the posts and Danny Gray was able to make it 13-0.

Waterloo mounted their first real attack on 26 minutes, and were awarded a line out in the Bristol 22, but they were not able to maintain possession and the Bristol line out jumpers were able to steal the ball. The ball was moved along the backs but was knocked on by Sean Marsden to give Waterloo a dangerous platform deep in the Bristol twenty two.
Ever alert though, Paul Hodgson was able to steal the ball from the base of the scrum and made a break to half way, where he offloaded to Chris Morgan who passed inside to the supporting Marco Stanojevic. As play came up to the twenty two Marco’s pass inside was intercepted by the covering Rob Hitchmough who was able to clear to touch and was no doubt delighted to see the touch judge award the line out to Waterloo.

Waterloo maintained possession from the line out but Bristol were able to contain the Drummers, and eventually they knocked on. From the scrum Paul Hodgson fed Danny Gray who shipped it on to Marco in the Bristol twenty two and with Marco starting to get on a bit of a roll he was able to beat two men on the wing before cutting inside and showing great strength to burst through the covering tackles touched down under the posts for the first of his tries.

The game was held up for a while as Waterloo centre Gareth Davies received treatment for an injury on the pitch and was carried off on a stretcher, fears for his safety were allayed when he rejoined his team mates on the bench on the second half.

Shortly after the resumption of play, 51 minutes into the half Waterloo were able to take advantage of a Bristol mistake and Jan Van Deventer was able to score down the left wing with Tony Handley converting to leave the half time score at 20-7.

Owen Evans had picked up a knock to the head in the first half and was replaced by James Bailey in the only change at half time.

The travelling Bristol support barely had time to notice this (the tannoy announcements were notable by their absence throughout save for two cursory test announcements late on in the game) before Bristol we on the score sheet again. An outrageous weaving run from Paul Hodgson showing why he is known as dodge managed to beat almost all of the Waterloo backs before he got the ball away to Marco who crossed in the corner, Danny Gray again converting.

Waterloo attacked straight from the restart and were awarded with a penalty that Handley was able to convert to close the gap slightly to 10-27, although it was already looking like a lost cause for the drummers.

Richard Hill made a couple of changes to the team bringing on Matt Styles for Chris Morgan on 52 minutes and Brett Davey for Jon Hawker on 57 minutes with Brett slotting into fly half.

None of this affected the Marco show though as taking an interception on half way the Italian sevens star showed his pace to show the trailing defence a clean pair of heels and race in to seal his hat trick.

Alex Clarke who had had an excellent game in defence was substituted with Wayne Thompson replacing him immediately after the score and Waterloo seemed to be having much more of the game.

Awarded a penalty they elected for touch and from the rolling maul were able to get hooker Chris Tyms over, Handley again converting.

There was still time for another Stanojevic interception leading to another Stanojevic try and if anyone at the ground did not know why he is nicknamed the weapon before the four try display, they left with a pretty good idea afterwards.

Waterloo stuck at it though and scored a further try from the restart Neil Kerfoot showed it wasn’t just Shoguns wingers who could score tries, Handley again converting, indeed up to this point in the match not a single kick at goal had missed.

Richard Hill made more substitutions as the game entered its last ten minutes, bringing Richard Hunt on for Martin Haag, Craig McGrath on for Saul Nelson and Gregg Nicholls on for Paul Hodgson.

Richard Hunt was able to mark his 100th game for Bristol with the simplest of tries after a big overlap had been created, though the conversion was missed, and there was still time for one further try scored from deep again with Brett Davey, then Ollie Hodge, then Sean Marsden, then Marco taking the ball on Brett was able to score under the posts, he converted his own try to leave the final score at 53-34 and the Shoguns fans in raptures after twelve months on an emotional roller coaster ride.