As it was, after the final whistle had gone, with the scoreboard showing a  3 - 28, one could be mistaken for thinking that all the nerves had been misplaced, but trust me, this was one of Bristol’s best performances in the past 2 or 3 seasons. And given what London Welsh threw at them it needed to be.

Adrian Jarvis was Bristol’s maestro, scoring eighteen points, a full house no less, a drop goal, conversions, penalties and the opening try. The fly-half started his points scoring early, slotting a drop goal from forty yards out, 0-3. It might not have been the cleanest contact ever heard at Old Deer Park, but it certainly lit the blue touch paper.

London Welsh responded with gusto and after a series of phases took them further into Bristol's 22, the home side came away with three points when Bristol transgressed, hands in the ruck according to the referee. Six minutes gone, 3-3, everything to play for.

Bristol's response was to try and up the pace, combining strong carries with quick hands, unfortunately a series of handling errors and basic mistakes slowed the momentum. A loose turn over handed possession back to London Welsh, Charlie Gower finding space on the wing and a try seemed inevitable. But it seems the handling errors disease was contagious and he knocked on just outside the 22. The pressure was still on though and although to many the Bristol scrum was well on top the referee awarded London Welsh a penalty for a binding offence. Fortunately for Bris the kick from Thomas Aled went wide.

Adrian Jarvis showed another piece of skill, an accurate chip pushing London Welsh back into their 22. Gordon Ross, Jarvis’s opposite number gathered the ball out wide. There’s an old saying that a kick is only as good as its chase, with Iain Grieve and the Bristol forwards bearing down on him, Ross held onto the ball on the floor. Jarvis now had the chance to add a penalty to his tally, albeit from out wide. Today though, with his best kicking boots on, no problem, the ball sailed through the uprights, 3-6.

This seemed to rattle Gordon Ross and London Welsh. The restart kick went out on the full and Luke Arscott, who was secure under the high ball all afternoon, opted to take a quick throw in rather than a full line out. Running straight up the line, Luke found brother Tom on the wing; he carried the ball forward before passing to Junior Fatialofa on his inside. Not to be left out Bristol’s forwards began a series of pick and drives and offloads. The ball was finally in the hands of prop Mark Irish, who but for a handling error would have scored. The look on Iro’s face spoke volumes.

With both teams trying to play real rugby, not the ariel ping pong that one sees in the Premiership every week, errors and penalties were always going to feature. James Phillips was the next to be penalised, quite rightly, for playing the ball whilst off his feet, awarding the home side a line-out on Bristol’s 10 metre line. The London Welsh line out, which functioned well all afternoon, fed scrum-half Rob Lewis who threw a dummy and went it alone, only to find himself isolated and pinged for holding on.All very entertaining stuff but still no tries on the board.

A few minutes later, after three re-set scrums, Jarvis again chipped for Lee Robinson to chase and gather, which he did, he also offloaded to Luke Arscott just before being tackled. Arscott in turn found Jarvis back on the inside who sped through for the opening try, his first of the season. From the touchline, Jarvis slotted the conversion to take Bristol ahead by 10, 3-13. Jarvis’s confidence was now sky high and this seemed to spread to the rest of the Bristol team. Nothing evidenced this more than when Adrian Jarvis kicked for the 5 meter line-out over the points on offer when London Welsh pulled down a maul. You won’t see a more accurate kick for the 5 metre line from distance and at such an angle. Not only was Jarvis’s place kicking going well, so was his kicking from hand.

The resulting line-out set up Bristol's second try. After securing the ball, breaks from Roy Winters and Adrian Jarvis gained further ground before Ross Johnston slipped deftly through the defenders for his fifth try of the season. Jarvis hit the conversion between the posts, 3-20.At this point special mention must be made of the RWAS, the Roy Winters Appreciation Society. Judging by their dress code and the comments they were making I suspect they were a group of Quins supporters giving one of their old boys solid support. And well deserved it was too. Roy leading from the front, galvanising Bristol’s defensive effort, (H) Adrian’s Wall, with aplomb. Pardon the pun.

London Welsh now began to try and force the game, obviously getting frustrated at the superb defensive display from Bristol, and errors started creeping in. A penalty from the same gave Jarvis the chance to take Bristol 20 points clear. The form he was in he could have shut his eyes whilst taking the kick and scored. He didn’t and the ball sailed straight between the uprights, 3 -23.HALF TIME. And the talk amongst the London Welsh supporters around me was twofold. Firstly how well Jarvis was controlling the Bristol back line and secondly the excellent defensive display from the whole Bristol team.

At the final whistle Bristol had 4 points in the bag after a superb performance from Adrian Jarvis, by far his best that I’ve seen him give in a Bristol shirt, and a dogged team defensive performance.

With two Championship games left to play, Bristol has the meanest defence and are the highest try scorers in the Championship. At what cost though, Roy Winters went off with a calf injury Sam Giddens looked in a lot of pain when he was taken off soon after replacing Adrian Jarvis.

Here’s wishing them both a speedy recovery.

Looking forward to welcoming Doncaster to The Mem on Wednesday night.

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