It was all early pressure from Wasps on a bright, but windy afternoon.  The Bristol defence was equal to the task and, despite concerted attacks close to the line the only reward was a penalty to give a 3 - 0 lead.  After weathering this early onslaught Bristol at last managed to take the game to Wasps.  First we saw Junior Fatialofa show his strength going forward, after some powerful tackling previously.  Sadly his burst came to nothing when his attempted floated pass went straight to Wasps' hands.  We saw some good handling from Bristol combined with some direct running and the sight of Alfie To'oala out on the left wing causing some problems for the defence.

Bristol got their reward for skilful and positive rugby when a well taken lineout allowed Shaun Perry to switch play back out to the wing David Lemi who, catching the Wasps' defence totally off guard, sped over without a hand laid on him.  Ed Barnes was off-target with his conversion and, rather against the run of play, Bristol were in a 3 - 5 lead.  Sadly Cipriani soon restored the hosts' lead with another penalty.

Nothing daunted, Bristol then executed another ruthless move.  Lemi caused confusion in the ranks of the defence and took play up to the 22.  The ball was quickly recycled and Perry got the ball out to the right.  Robinson took the ball at pace, handed off two attempted tackles in quick succession and plunged over in the corner for a converted try and a 6 - 12 lead.  Wasps had the bulk of possession but Bristol had punished them whenever they got into scoring range.  Bristol's confidence, and the strength of the wind, were nicely illustrated when Tom Arscott launched a very ambitious drop goal attempt from half way which went surprisingly close.

Wasps struggled to get back into the game after these twin blows and committed a host of basic errors, knock-ons and missed passes.  They had the chance to narrow the gap but Cipriani made a complete mess of what looked a simple penalty, totally miscuing and the ball barely leaving the ground.  With the clock counting down it looked like Bristol would make it to half time with a good lead but Barnes failed to make touch with time virtually up.  Wasps darted forwards and Roy Winters was sin-binned for preventing release at the ruck.  Cipriani made amends for his previous howler and it was 9 - 12 at half time.

Bristol had to make it through the ten minutes of Winters' absence and were positive in their efforts to take the game to Wasps.  Replacement Dave Walder was off-target with a penalty and might have had a try, had van Gisbergen not fumbled with a clear overlap.  And so Bristol made it to the end of the sin-binning without conceding any points before Mariano Sambucetti come on in Winters' sted.  However, Wasps continued to hammer away and it was inevitable that the defence would crumble.  Waldouck made a break and good handling created enough space for Mitchell to score a converted try in the corner. 16 - 12 for Wasps with 50 minutes played.

Earlier in the season we might have seen Bristol's will crumple at this point but instead we were treated to the sight of full back Tarscott dancing and bludgeoning his way from inside the Bristol half up to Wasps' 22.  Unfortunately the move petered out from lack of support.  Wasps, taking advantage of the wind, kicked well to keep Bristol on the back foot.  Waldouck and Lewsey nearly fashioned a second Wasps' try but the finishing lacked precision.  Reddan knocked on with the line at his mercy following a great tackle from Wasps' new No. 8, Dan Ward-Smith!  Eventually they made their pressure tell and Beech went over through a tiring defence.

A lead of 21 - 12 looked to be enough with just four minutes remaining, but Bristol had other ideas.  First they claimed possession from the restart and rumbled their way downfield.  The ball was flipped out of the maul to Barnes who, seeing three defenders up quickly, made a sort of boxy, grubbery kick behind.  Robinson swept up from deep and had the strength and pace to touch the ball down ahead of the desperate defence.  Barnes made the difficult conversion and, with less than two minutes left, it was 21 - 19.  Bristol strove to get back into scoring range but, despite some jittery moments Wasps were just able to hold out.

Another narrow defeat, but one in which recent improvement were well to the fore.   When you see a home side, even shorn of internationals, with Wasps' calibre of players, outscored three tries to two you know something is going right.  With just the one penalty at the end of the first half proving decisive this is the sort of performance Bristol can build on.  The next game, against Worcester, might see Bristol relegated.  If so, we look to have a good core of players for ND1 (much better than the single player we had last time!) and maybe we will live to fight on in the Premiership.  I still think we've got one really good performance in us.  When will it come?

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