Although the Courage Leagues began in the 1987-88 season, for many people – led by Sky Sports – the rebranding of The Premiership ten years later marks the start of the record books.  At the end of that season, while Newcastle Falcons finished top of the pile at the first time of asking, Bristol – with a squad featuring the likes of Jim Brownrigg, Paul Burke, Chad Eagle, Paul Hull, Robert Jones, Josh Lewsey, and Kevin Maggs - suffered the ignominy of relegation for the first time.  Twelve months later they returned to the top flight as champions, and but for the lottery of the play-offs they would be considered favourites to do so again this year.  Indeed, since the inception of the Premiership in 1998 only three seasons have passed in which the relegated team (aka the Premiership’s 13^th team) has not subsequently finished top of this league - and one of those was the Bristol team relegated in 2003 who returned two years later.

The aforementioned Paul Hull is approaching his first anniversary as Head Coach, having replaced former England scrum-half Richard Hill last February.  Hill had been in the role for almost six years, joining after their last relegation, and was responsible for promoting a number of National One players - such as Shaun Perry, Dan Ward-Smith and Lee Robinson - to the Premiership and even international honours.  On his first visit to ODP in November 2003 Hill’s team featured a young Paul Hodgson at scrum-half, with Richard Martin-Redman, Greg Nicholls and Duncan Hayward all appearing in their 23-10 defeat.

Full-back Hull was a Bristol stalwart, making nearly 300 appearances for the club between 1987 and 1999, over half of them in league matches.  Having won England A honours as a 21 year-old in 1989 he eventually gained four full caps, including both Tests in South Africa in 1994.  His place in the 1995 World Cup squad looked assured, but he was injured before the autumn internationals and returned to the fringes of the national squad; he was never to be capped again.  Hull’s playing career was ended by an Achilles injury in 1999, and he turned to coaching, first managing the successful Bristol Academy before becoming Assistant Coach at London Irish in 2003, and returning to the Memorial Stadium as assistant to Richard Hill two years later.  He was appointed Assistant Coach of England Saxons in January 2009, but stepped-down earlier this season to concentrate on getting Bristol back into the Premiership.

In their march to the top of the table, Bristol have scored more tries than any other team (75 in 19 games) while conceding the fewest (26).  While their attacking record of 535 points is not quite as good as Bedford or Exeter (536 and 601 respectively, although both have played one more match), they are the only team to have conceded fewer than 300 points.  With an average of 16.1 points conceded per game, Welsh are second only to Bristol (15.6) in the defensive charts – since our 28-23 defeat at the Mem on the opening weekend, only Bedford have scored more points against Welsh, in their 30-23 victory on Boxing Day, and only three opposition tries have been registered at ODP in the three home games played since then.

Two of the league’s top try-scorers could come face-to-face on Saturday, with wingers Errie Claassens and Dan Norton among the four players on 11 touchdowns apiece for the season.  Norton scored four times for Moseley in our final league game at Esher last season – he scored 19 tries in 32 appearances for the Midlanders over two seasons on-loan from Gloucester before joining Bristol in the summer.  Having collected 70% of their points from tries, it seems that goal-kicking has been an issue for Bris, yet fly-half Adrian Jarvis is currently fifth on the points-scoring chart with 152.  Only Exeter’s Gareth Steenson has landed more conversions, but he has missed only nine of his 48 shots compared to Jarvis’ 37 successes from 68 attempts.  Perhaps an indication of the team’s attacking instincts is given by the fact that Jarvis has, conversely, scored 26 penalties from 32 efforts, suggesting that they only opt for the three points when the easy opportunity is presented.

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