In bright conditions Bristol kicked off in a manner that was to typify their afternoon when Ed Barnes kicked out on the full.  Despite this Bristol were to put in a good-looking, but ultimately fruitless performance.  Firstly there was the rare sight of a scrum taken against the head which allowed the hard-working Neil Brew to make ground and set David Lemi free backed up by good supporting runners.  The ball was taken close to the line before a turnover gave possession back to the hosts.  Still, Bristol looked to take the game to the Irish and there was some slick handling as they sought a way through.  Unfortunately, these pretty moves came to nothing and before long Irish had a long range penalty chance that Hewat nailed unerringly to take Irish into the lead at 3 - 0.

Bristol then equalised at the end of the first quarter after another good break from Brew.  The kick was a tricky one but Barnes made up for his opening error.  Irish swiftly hit back as some poor tackling and organisation saw the dangerous Ojo take play well into the Bristol 22.  The ball was whipped out wide and Mackie  went over without a Bristol defender touching him.  Hewat converted to take London Irish to a 10 - 3 lead.  He was to increase the lead to 13 - 3 with another penalty as Bristol went offside.   Bristol were stung into a response and once again put together a very nice looking piece of fluid interplay.  This time it allowed the Arscott brethren to set Tom free on a clear sprint to the line.  The home supporters called "Forward!" and the referee agreed.  Frankly I was dead in line and it was just a perfectly flat pass.  If you weren't in that position it might well have looked forward.  It wasn't.  Sadly, I was not asked to adjudicate.  The score remained 13 - 3 as the half ended.

The second half started poorly for Bristol when Jason Hobson saw yellow for barging an Irish player.  I was following play and did not see anything, but he has ‘previous' so probably wasn't going to get a firm lecture and ‘final' warning.  Hewat was again on target to extend his side's lead to 16 - 3.  Further problems ensued when former Bristol player Hodgson chipped the Bristol defence to allow Hewat to go over the line in the corner.  Referee and touch judge looked at each other and decided that a try had been scored.  From where I was it appeared a bit of an ‘iffy' decision, but, in fairness, I wasn't best placed.  Irritatingly, Tarscott was soon heading over in the opposite corner but appeared to hit the corner flag.  Irish took full advantage of the reprieve to stretch the Bristol defence and send Mapusua through a yawning gap for Irish's third, though unconverted, try.  28 - 3 to Irish.

Both sides were using their replacements (and it fantastic to see our younger players get a first team chance and Mariano Sambucetti make his return from a terrible injury); unusually this did not bring about the customary disruption.  Bristol indeed started to play with greater directness now that the game was beyond them.  Luke Eves made a powerful run through midfield reminiscent of his father Derek and Lemi sprinted away down the left wing embarrassing the first defender as he went on the outside.  Just as it looked that he was away he must have gone into touch.  He looks so much better when he tries to beat his man on the outside rather than coming back inside and into the heavy traffic.  Bristol had a succession of penalties that they kicked for touch in the far corner.  The resulting lineouts were rather messy and I feel, as I so often do, that the scrum would have been the better attacking option.  Irish threatened to clear their lines but eventually the ball went out along the line for Tarscott to finally get the try his efforts deserved.  Replacement Jason Strange was wide of the posts with his conversion attempt but Bristol had obtained a measure of respectability with a 28 - 8 score.  Irish went looking for the bonus point try and looked to have set up a great overlap before a forward flapped at a ball that was not meant for him to let Bristol off the hook.  Still they tried to break through and Bristol were under tremendous pressure in the left corner as the game drew to its close.  Last ditch tackling prevented the try and it was Bristol who hoofed the ball into touch with the countdown clock on zero.

This was another disappointing performance from Bristol.  The defensive cohesion of last season and some of this is lacking and, despite good individual performances, this means that we concede tries.  Conversely we lack a cutting edge in attack and seem to be laboured when attempting to execute both pre-planned and ad hoc moves.  Irish, without playing brilliantly (and not needing to) were able to take advantage of most of their try scoring opportunities.  Yes, one could point at the erroneous forward pass decision which did occur when the game was poised in the balance, but in all honestly Bristol looked outclassed and outthought for much of the game.  I was particularly disappointed in Richard Hill's remarks after the match which essentially said that as we couldn't win anything then the result of this game wasn't very important.  Well, it was important to the loyal and numerous Bristol supporters who had invested a considerable amount of time and money in following their team.  Speaking of support, the crowd numbers were pretty disappointing and the drumming even more annoying than normal.  I must say it seems a bit hypocritical to call for silence during kicks and then permit a fractured drum roll as an opposition player waits to field a high kick.  Although it didn't actually seem to affect Bristol too much it does smack of being unsporting.  Ho Hum.  Anyway, the weather and beer were nice even though the garish Magners in the Swan was actually warm (not that I drank it, I hasten to add).  Pity about the result.

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