Bristol started with an early penalty for not rolling away to take a 0 - 3 lead.  However, in what proved to be a pattern of the match, Bristol gave away a penalty of their own to allow Bees straight back into the game with former player Mark Woodrow giving an excellent kicking display throughout.  A good restart saw the hosts let bounce and Bristol put in a powerful forward drive.  The resulting scrum saw some messing around, but it looked as if Bristol had a clear edge and chose to keep that advantage as the referee showed early signs of disapproval.  The decision proved wise as Bees struggled again and Dan Montagu picked up and powered over for an unconverted try: 3 - 8

It looked as this might presage a dominant Bristol display as the forwards put in some good powerful breaks with debutant Jack Adams also prominent.  Alas it was not to be as an unsympathetic pass was knocked on by Adams with the line at his mercy.  Fortunately Bees were having handling problems of their own and, under pressure, they opted for the bold tactic of attempting to play the ball out of the in-goal area.  A long pass out to the right wing was knocked and the five-metre scrum was Bristol's.  The initial drive was held but a Bees player unbound and came round the scrum to kick the ball away.  Surprisingly the referee went straight over behind the posts for a penalty try, duly converted for 3 -15.

Bristol gave away another penalty with lax defending to keep Bees in the hunt at 6 - 15.  Bees promptly returned the favour and returned the gap to 6 - 18.  A gap which was not to last long as shocking Bristol defence and lack of commitment at the breakdown allowed Bees in out wide as their large winger sped in out wide after a lovely pass.  It was well converted for 13 - 18.  At this point I went to the bar in the fruitless hope that the service would be relatively quick.  My wife's notes tell me that we had a series of rucks and that Lee Robinson made a good run before we knocked on with a try looking on.  Looking out of the bar I did see a fine try from Adams who picked up a loose ball a long way out and raced away down the five-metre line, fixed the last defenders with a couple of jinks and dived over on the left.  The unconverted try to Bristol out to 13 - 23.  Just before half time Bees narrowed the gap once again as Bristol committed some offence and it was 16 -23.

Bristol started the half positively enough but coughed up the ball at a ruck ball.  Bees popped the ball neatly to the wing who sped in untouched from inside his own half.  Converted with ease, it was 23-all.  Terrible Bristol defence allowed Bees to mount another threatening attack and continued to make mistakes in handling and at the breakdown.  Finally Bristol were stung in some kind of positive action and drove back with Adams again to the fore.  Jason Spice opened his Bristol account with a neat break but Adrian Jarvis was off target so it was 23 - 28, despite the bonus point try.

Bristol continued to be slow at the breakdown and another turnover let Bees make good ground.  Roy Winters infringed at the ruck and was yellow carded.  The resulting penalty was excellent and it was 26 - 28.  Bristol hit back when direct running from Adams saw him go over for an unconverted try and the score of 26 - 33.

Bristol promptly undid this good work and gave away a penalty right in front of posts to edge the hosts closer at 29 - 33.  Bristol struggled to make ground and continued to struggle at the breakdown.  Despite this, it looked as if Adams was on for his hat-trick with line at mercy but he knocked on from what may have been a poor pass.   A not straight lineout handed possession to Bristol who mounted a strong attack, forcing Bees back to the try line.  However Bristol looked to have made a mess of things in midfield before the ball was awkwardly (my wife insists it was balletic from DC!) flipped out one handed to Dan Norton who stepped past the defence for a try well converted by replacement Mark Davies and 29 - 40.

A stupid penalty was given away by replacement Luke Arscott,  who held on after struggling to reach a high crossfield kick instead of just booting the ball out.  Bees went for touch but Bristol looked to have cleared the danger as they came away with the ball from the lineout.  As Bristol pushed forward a dreadful pass in midfield lead to a knock on which Bees hoofed downfield.  Robinson loped back and attempted to touch the ball down as it went over the line (rightly allowing the ball to carry over rather than risk a five-metre scrum).  From my distance it looked as if the ball just bounced away from his finger tips and the onrushing Bees player just about got it down before Robinson could recover.  Other, closer, observers claim that he actually did touch down.  Certainly the referee and touch judge were uncertain initially before awarding the try.  Once again the difficult conversion sailed over for the final action of the game and a 36 - 40 scoreline.

Oh dear.  Once again Bristol scraped a narrow win in unconvincing fashion.  If you consider that last season Bristol were in the top tier and Birmingham Solihull in the third then this result, with no disrespect to Bees, was truly terrible.  The lineout, whilst better than last weekend, still looked frail.  Our play at the breakdown lacks urgency and leads to turnovers and some of our handling is suspect.  On the plus side, Jack Adams made a fine debut and Dan Norton showed up well, despite only getting one pass.  I know it's early in the season (and our ‘soft' pre-season games can't have helped) and that we don't really have to play well until the stupid play-off stage, but we really need to up the pace.  On this sort of performance sides like Exeter, Bedford and Doncaster will give us a pasting.  The forwards really look as if they need some hard work. I know I'm supposed to love John Brain, but I don't think I can see any evidence that his appointment has had a positive impact.  With the return of the maul you might think a coach of his background would be in an ideal position to organise a pack.  This lack of urgency, dynamism and organisation leads to problems in the half-backs.  Jason Spice is a much better player than we've seen so far, but he is hampered by the quality and speed of ball he gets.  Typically, this gets shipped on to the fly-half and so we get bogged down in slow messy play.  We've got to improve from this.

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