By Ian Todd
December 19 2012

Bristol continued to build their recovery from the Nottingham disaster with a comfortable victory, restricting the visitors to one, fortuitous, first half try and nilling them in the second half. A bonus point try come up along the way and there was a hat-trick on his debut for Alafoti Faosiliva. Welcome to Bristol and keep up the good work!

 

London Scottish kicked of the game at a chilly Memorial Ground and almost immediately had points on the board when Bristol were penalised and Love sent over a kick from right in front of the posts. Minutes later Bristol struck back with a fine converted try. Ruki Tipuna scuttled across the face of the defence, jabbed a grubber kick into space and superbly collected the ball. He fixed the defender and passed on to George Watkins who had raced up in support. The winger still had work to do and a lovely swerve took him past the defender and over the line.

And guess what? Yes, that’s right - Bristol promptly gave away a penalty and it was 7 – 6. So many sides seem to do this, but it almost happens every time to Bristol. Mind you, the referee didn’t have the best of games so that might be an excuse this time. A brief cameo from debutant Alafoti Faosiliva showed his pace and power before Adrian Jarvis sent over another penalty. Sadly this was just the precursor for a stunning Scottish try. The visitors kicked in to space and Bristol were utterly wrongly adjudged to have knocked-on. A terrible error from the officials if they cannot spot something like that in open play. In any event it gave Scottish good field possession and the rather curious officiating a the scrum gave them even more. A pop pass, a bit of blocking (not too sure about that, it may have been an artefact of my point of view, but I’ll have a look at the video on Youtube when it’s up) and the perennial Reay was over out left for a well converted try. 10 – 13 and rather against the run of play.

Scottish edged further in front with another penalty and Bristol’s efforts to get back into the game were hindered by some poor official decisions. The most extraordinary being the call of not straight at a Bristol lineout that was one of the straightest ever seen. The poor control at the scrum did not help much either. The engagement calls were both over-extended and inconsistent in timing and inevitably led to protracted scrums with numerous resets and free-kicks, mainly to Scottish. This include one scrum in which the Scottish feed wasn’t even into the tunnel but behind the second row. I know we never see a straight put in any more but that was ridiculous. Fortunately a couple of penalties eventually went Bristol’s way, to ironic cheers, and Jarvis was able to ensure that Bristol went in all square at half time.

Bristol emerged for the second half in determined mood. A lineout drive saw the pack thunder over the line only to be ruled held up after a brief discussion between referee and touch judge (or are they assistant referees?). However, Jarvis struck another penalty kick to edge Bristol back in front at 19 – 16, the year of the battle of Jutland (there was a guy in the crowd with a baseball cap with a wreck diving in Scapa Flow badge, which is why I mention this).

This presaged a forceful display that saw Bristol take a leaf out of Nottingham’s playbook and drive irresistibly over the line in quick succession from lineouts. The grateful recipient of the plaudits in both cases was Faosiliva. These strikes by the pack were decisive, extending a narrow lead into a comfortable looking 31 – 16. And what do you know? He was back over the whitewash again soon after. A hat-trick on his debut! When was the last time a Bristol player achieved that distinction? After a flood of replacements the backs were allowed to bracket the forwards’ efforts with a superb try. A surge down the left wing from Marco Mama had the retreating defence all over the place. Tackled into touch he released a peach of a pass, great timing. Luke Eves was following up well and he latched onto the ball at speed, jinked right and sprinted clear of the despairing defence and was over. Is it just me, or has he regained some of the pace he lost during his Newcastle sojourn? In any event it left the final score at 43 -16 and the bonus point secured.