As my match preview said, we went into the Bristol game as favourites. It never suits us, we almost always play well below ourselves when facing the proposition of a beatable team. Bristol, it seems, also did their homework.

From the off the home team came out bristling with enthusiasm and talent. In a surprise change to their announced line-up David Lemi had made it back from the RWC and started on the wing. It only seemed fair given that our own Samoan flyer - Sailosi Tagikacabau - was back for us. Lemi gives Bristol a real edge, though, focusing the solid work of the forwards by giving the possibility of real pace out wide.

This focus allowed Bristol to come out all-guns-blazing and immediately pushed Irish back, the pressure told and an offside infringement allowed David Hill to put the home team 3 points ahead after only a minute. They continued the pressure from the restart and a good break from Joe El-Abd put their other winger Tom Arscott in for his first premiership try. Hill allowed the visitors a little comfort by missing the conversion.

Taking heart from this Irish began to try to match-up to the home side. Stealing a lineout and moving the ball forward Irish began to edge into their opponents half. Jeremy Staunton picked-up an injury (possibly hamstring) from a clearance-kick which left Delon Armitage to do the kicking with Shane Geraghty not being allowed to by the medical team since his recent injury. Delon stepped-up well, though, slotting a longish penalty to give the visitors their first points.

Staunton's injury never recovered, unfortunately for Irish we left him on too long too as a nice move, and almost certain try came to nought with Staunton hobbling and messing-up the final pass. It was a moment that could really have changed the game, not Jeremy's fault at all, when you're crocked, you can't play but the timing was crucial. Staunton left the field to be replaced by Nils Mordt.

The home side found their desire again, spurred-on by the scare of a near try. A blistering run by Lemi was stopped only by Paul Hodgson scuttling back to make a try-saving tackle. An earlier off-side was returned to but David Hill was kind enough to miss the kick. Bristol kept the pressure up, though, and soon had another penalty kick, this time in front of the posts and Hill made it count.

Irish had struggled to get the ball for any length of time but seemed to redouble their efforts and started to see some rewards. They stopped the constant pressure and started to exert a little of their own. Little in the way of clear moves came their way but they did force the home side to infringe. Delon missed one kick but, like Hill put the second over to give us some hope going into the break.

Half Time - Bristol 11 - 6 Irish.

The Irish impact player - Steffon Armitage - came on early. Recently he's been getting his chance at around 60 minutes but the management clearly thought he'd give us more go-forward and he got the whole second half to cause mayhem. He made a good start and Irish came out of the break looking to move the ball and make in-roads to the stern Bristol defence. Irish had begun to fire, albeit falteringly, a number of breaks were stopped by desperate but well-executed home tackles.

Bristol, though, had put in a lot of work in the first half and weren't about to watch it all come undone. They weathered the early second-half storm and started to hit back on the break. As many Irish eyes wandered over the Channel to the otehr important game of the day Bristol scored a further penalty leaving Irish out of Bonus Point range.

The Irish hadn't given-up, though, and the visitors still tried to effect some pressure on their hosts' defence. A long period ensued with Irish camped on the Bristol try line, attack after attack was held agonisingly short of the white-wash by a determined home effort. Irish kept their cool, something that hasn't happened in similar situations in the past. They also kept the pressure up and, eventually it told. Inevitably the larger Armitage proved the management right by crashing over for and Irish try. Sadly, his brother missed the tricky coversion to leave the score 14 - 11.

Bristol sensed their first win of the 2007 season and regrouped, pushing Irish back into their half again, remembering that the game was much easier for them with the ball in that half of the field. The pressure, again, yielded a penalty in front of the posts but Hill completely stuffed his attempt. It must be awful for a young chap in that position when it goes so wrong. Had they lost the game this could have been a real problem for the lad, Bristol weren't in the ,ood to lose though.

Further pressure brought a longer-range kick which the home-side chose, possibly because of Hill's troubles, possibly just to run the clock down, to take to the corner. From the lineout they started to cause Irish the same woes that had been reversed 10 mintues or so earlier. Irish, like their hosts, held firm but with no chance of getting their hands on the ball the clock slowly ticked the game away to the delight of the home support.

Bristol wrestled this game from us, their lineout seemed to fix many of it's problems and their forwards executed a simple plan to tie Irish up in the centre to give their wings the space they needed. With less of a rookie kicking the losing Bonus Point may have gone begging. Of course, had Staunton not picked-up his injury Irish may have taken the game too, although Delon did a fair job in his absence.

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