Bristol opened surprisingly strongly and Tom Arscott, who looked far better than last week, showed some of the style of earlier seasons when he stepped past would-be tacklers to take play to Sale.  For an instant it appeared he might make it a dream start for Bristol, but the defence just got organised in time to halt his run.  Illegally though, and Adrian Jarvis had a nice little penalty chance to get him going and he made no mistake to take an early 0 -3 lead.  His confidence boosted by this effort, he retained his composure when a rather laboured kick by Arscott was charged down by a suspiciously quick Sale player.

His next effort came after straight running by Dan Ward-Smith.  And not straight across the pitch, but forward across the gain line.  Something of a novelty this season.  He was well supported too and Sale had to kill the ball to halt the move.  0 - 6 to Bristol.  Inside ten minutes we were already twice as good as last week!  A rather surprised and sluggish Sale had to respond somehow.  They started to apply a little pressure but all too often kicked possession away.  This was reminiscent of much of Bristol's efforts throughout the season and the effect was, inevitably to hand possession back to the visitors who were then able to halt any attacking momentum.  Bristol, interestingly, kicked far less often in the first half and the first option was frequently to run the ball.  Any kicking was also far more sparing and judicious in its application.

So it was unfortunate when a run powerful, and rare, run forward by Darren Crompton (who had seen an advert for a pie at the far end) surprised Bristol and the support was just too late in arriving.  The penalty was very long range but Hodgson made no mistake to narrow the gap to 3 - 6.

Sake now attempted to kick on from this and started to string a few moves together.  One looked destined for a try as the Bristol defence was overcommitted in midfield but one of those huge passes intended to exploit the space out wide flew behind the winger and into touch.  It was unsurprising then that the Bristol defence finally cracked with five minutes left to play in the half.  Ripol went close before, out of the messy ruck, Roberts crawled over for a converted try and 10 - 6.  They went further ahead with a penalty just before the whistle.  The half stood at 13 -6 which probably reflected the balance of play.

The second half started in an oddly cagey manner.  Sale still kicked too often and Bristol coped comfortably enough although they too started to kick more than in the first half.  One such from Shaun Perry, who had resisted the temptation earlier, allowed Sale to counterattack and it galvanised Sale into more positive and direct action.  A fine, well co-ordinated, attacking move took the ball close to the Bristol line and the excellent Lobbe smashed his way over out wide for a try well converted by Hodgson.  20 -6 to Sale and things looked ominous for Bristol.

Just before the hour they struck again when Hodgson, showing international class, set MacLeod free for a well worked try that Hodgson again converted to give Sale a dominant 27 - 6 lead.  Five minutes later they were over again when Briggs went over in the corner after another excellent move.  This time Hodgson was off target.  In a ten minute period they had taken a game poised at 13 -6 to an authoritative 32 -6.

Probably Sale relaxed after this bonus point effort but the sparse band of travelling support was lifted when Bristol took play deep into the Sale half in a good move of their own.  Quick ruck ball and offloading from the tackle saw an overlap out right that Bristol failed to exploit with sufficient ruthlessness.  As the move appeared to stutter out the ball popped up into the hands of Ward-Smith who sped over the line.  With time up, Jarvis made no mistake with the difficult conversion and the game closed on 32 - 13.

A more respectable scoreline than last Friday and, a more respectable performance.  Perhaps it goes to show just how well Newcastle played and under how much pressure Bristol put themselves.  Defensively we looked better organised and our kicking game was much improved, particularly in the first half.  Chasing too was better, except for one in the second in which an immense Lee Robinson effort went so far that there was no way any Bristol player could have got near it but no one made the effort to get forward in an organised way; .and so the initiative passed to Sale.  In attack we are limited and we just don't see Bristol perform the offload from the tackle to the player looping round or advancing at pace from a deep position.  We do seem to play terribly flat.  More importantly we obviously lack confidence.  However, for a team supposedly in turmoil this wasn't a bad effort.  The only peculiar bit I saw was a huddle just after a Sale try when Robinson was ushered away to stand on his own.  I don't know why.  Whatever the off field activities this was a performance on which we can build.  Sadly we can't now make the play-offs!

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