By Alan Saul
September 15 2014

In their unfamiliar red colours Bristol defeated Yorkshire Carnegie in a rather dispiriting match that contrasted hugely with the last time the sides met back in March in a thoroughly entertaining encounter.  Auguy Slowik celebrated his first start of the season with two well taken tries but those were the only real highpoints for Bristol.  The second half in particular was a total mess of scrum resets and ineffectul moves.  Still, two wins out of two is a good start to the season and most supporters would take wins like that in the play-offs if we ever get there.

The early action saw Jones adjudged to have been held up over the line, but Bristol were penalised at the subsequent scrum and Hughes slotted the points from in front of the posts.  The lead was not to last long however when the hosts were penalised in turn.  Humbly, Bristol elected to go for the posts and Matthew Morgan duly equalised.

The fly-half kicked Bristol into the lead as Bristol continued to go for the posts rather than gamble on the kick into the corner.  TTFKAL moved back in front when a scrappy lineout was snaffled by Bristol and then knocked on to release Goss who powered through some poor tackling to touch down for a converted try.

Another lead that wasn’t to last for long when a very neat chip from Ben Mosses out to the left touchline was taken by Auguy Slowik at pace and he danced in at the corner for a converted try.  Leeds, sorry, Yorkshire equalised from another penalty given at the scrum.  The hosts had a chance to regain the lead soon after but Hughes’ effort sailed wide.  Morgan made no mistake with a penalty kick just before half time to take Bristol in 13 – 16 ahead.

Bristol started the second half in determined fashion pressuring the hosts with several phases of possession before Jack Tovey made an incisive break that took him close to the Leedshire line before offloading to Slowik who went over for his second.

After this flash of skill and precision the game descended into a mish-mash of collapsed scrums, knock-ons and poor control.  Bristol were largely content to allow things to meander on in this way with half-hearted ‘fights’ punctuating the seemingly never-ending sequence of reset scrums.  All of which played into the visitors’ hands as the clock wound down.  Craig Hampson appeared for a brief cameo and Morgan nailed another penalty right at the end for a final score of 13 – 26.