The sight of the hugely muscled Stade team warming up in their skin-tight beige was rather more intimidating than the imperial stormtroopers who greeted my arrival in Cardiff.  The weather too was a marked contrast, with rain and a strong, cold gusting wind.  I feel sorry for the camera man perched high in the old gym corner.  Judging from the way he was being blown around I don’t imagine many of his shots made it into the programme.

Bristol, wisely, started by playing into the conditions; gambling, I guess, on being able to take advantage of them in the second half.  Stade were quickly on the attack from the kick-off as the game started in style that was the keynote of the entire afternoon: dangerous looking backs from the French nullified by stalwart defence and an outstanding forward effort from Bristol.  The Parisians' initial move was halted and then a penalty kick allowed Bristol take play back down field.  Bristol then took play to the French champions with Neil Brew, looking, as someone in the crowd said, like a 70’s porn-star (presumably because of the moustache, Joe el Abd looked rather like Ming the Merciless) making a good break that came to nothing with an off-target pass.

Tom Arscott also looked good early on, continuing his fine start to the season.  Alas, it was to be a brief appearance as he was injured with just a few minutes played.  He struggled on for a short while, clearly in discomfort, before being replaced by Josh Taumalolo.  However, the re-jigged backline coped admirably.  Stade were soon forced into giving away penalties and David Hill took play down to the corner with a well-judged kick.  The lineout was secured and the pack drove for the line but was held out by the well-marshalled defence.  The ball was passed out to the backline only for a knock-on to bring the move to a disappointing conclusion.  Fortunately the scrum was a total mess, from the Stade point of view, as the Bristol front five exerted their dominance.  A penalty was the inevitable result as the French scrummage disintegrated.  Hill was spot on with his effort and Bristol led 3 - 0 with just over a quarter of an hour played.

Bristol were applying the pressure in the Stade half, but gave away a penalty for holding on as they pounded away at the defence.  Skrela, who looked distinctly shaky throughout, kicked a magnificent wind-assisted penalty right down to the Bristol five metre line.  Stade won the lineout but were unable to make any quick inroads into the Bristol defence.  They displayed a surprising lack of patience when, after just two or three phases, Skrela sent up what I assume was a woeful attempted drop goal.  It was both wide and short and Bristol were off the hook.

Bristol were soon troubling the visitors when Dan Ward-Smith, looking far more like the potential England number 8 of last season, picked up from a rather scrappy scrum and ran powerfully into the defence.  The ball went out to the backline and David Lemi, given a rare opportunity in attack, tried to twist his way through the well organised Stade defence.  He was stopped, but the French went offside at the ruck and Hill nailed the penalty to take Bristol to a 6 – 0 lead.  Stade knew that a score before half-time was vital and they strung together several good phases of play as they sought a way through the defensive wall.  The organisation and discipline of Bristol was excellent, however, and the visiting side ended the half without troubling the scoreboard.

The second half had a very similar pattern to the first, except that the elements were well and truly behind the home side.  This meant, of course, that box and chip kicks were no longer held up in the wind and, indeed, the half saw a few Bristol kicks that were either far too long or went out on the full.  The Bristol pack, however, knew they had the upper hand in the tight and Stade suffered in the scrum.  When they avoided the set piece the visitors were able to trouble Bristol but the defence held firm.  An early penalty chance went to Stade as the defence came up offside, but Skrela was shockingly off-target.  Stade clearly felt that they had a chance to get back into the game at this stage and continued to put Bristol under pressure.  Only stout defence and Stade errors kept the Bristol line intact.  Of course when play broke down the French vulnerability at the scrum allowed Bristol the chance to relieve the pressure.  From one such Bristol turned over Stade possession and gave Lemi another chance.  Sadly he was forced to kick the ball ahead and it carried too far.  Eventually the Bristol kicking game was able to make its mark and captain Shaun Perry was able to gain a huge amount of territory with a fine kick.  Bristol capitalised by winning the lineout and driving on.  Not for the first time the maul was pulled down, but this time the referee agreed with the crowd and Hill made no error from out on the right to take Bristol to a deserved 9 – 0 lead with an hour played.

Although Bristol were good value for the lead, the margin for error was slim and Stade were desperate to gain something from the match.  From a breakdown in their own 22 they resorted to some frantic passing in their efforts to outwit the Bristol defence that eventually saw them driven back over their own try line by some inspired offensive-defence.  The curious passage was all for naught when play was called back to virtually where it started for a Bristol scrum.  Bristol got the ball back to Hill who attempted a drop goal.  The Stade defence was up very quickly and his effort was charged down by Fillol who looked as if he was going to rush the length of the field to score a deflating breakaway try.  Stade’s afternoon was summed up in the fact that he promptly dropped the ball!  Still Stade strove to make some headway and still the defence was solid and, crucially, disciplined.  The French side attempted to put some width on a move in the middle of the field only to loft the ball into the grateful arms of Brew.  He seized his

chance and sped away on an angled run, supported by Rob Higgitt.  Some heart stopping interplay between the two followed and the merest hint of a delay on the final pass from Higgitt that caused a fatal hesitation in the last defender saw Brew slide over in the right hand corner.  The difficult conversion was well wide but Bristol held a 14 – 0 lead with just a few minutes to play.  Sufficient time for Hill to land another penalty from the opposite side of the pitch to increase the margin to 17 – 0.  Creditably Stade still tried to take the game to Bristol, but the defence stood resolute to the last and it was victory for Bristol.

After the criticism I levelled at the team following the defeat to Cardiff, this match saw a much improved performance from both team and individuals.  In fairness the Stade side looked as if a mid-November afternoon in Bristol was somewhere that they would rather not have been, but the attitude of the Bristol side surely contributed to that.  Doubtless they will blame the weather (oddly Narbonne after narrowly beating us in the Midi also blamed the weather for their poor performance, which for those of us sitting in short sleeves came as something of a surprise), but I’m sure rugby is played in the winter in France too!  The forward effort was the foundation of victory with the tight five outclassing their opposites in all facets of play.  Credit must go to Jason Hobson who maintained his discipline throughout whilst putting in a typically abrasive performance along with his fellow front rowers..  Indeed the discipline of the side right through the game to give so few penalty chances whilst keeping up a well organised defence was also a crucial factor.  Sean Hohneck was an obvious choice for man-of-the-match, but compatriot Andrew Blowers ran him close and it was good to see Dan Ward-Smith getting back to something approaching his best.  An excellent performance that we must hope can be carried on to the league game against B**h.