By Mark W-J
October 21 2010

This Sunday marks the 125^th anniversary of London Welsh's first fixture, against London Scottish at Saracens' ground in Walthamstow.  The club had been formed exactly four months earlier, to 'play a few London matches and to arrange a tour through South Wales during Christmastide'.  It’s fitting that this weekend's opponents, Bristol, are one of our oldest rivals, the series dating back to 1900.

Our first meeting took place at the County Ground, Bristol’s home until the First World War, on 22nd December 1900.  The Welsh were en route to South Wales, where their punishing itinerary continued with Mountain Ash on Christmas Eve and Aberavon on Christmas Day.  The Welsh were strengthened that season by the arrival of one of the best players to represent the club in its 125 year history, the legendary winger, Hop Maddocks.  In his 14 year career – which was ended by the outbreak of war – Hop made 275 appearances in the scarlet jersey, scoring 170 tries, and his tally of 26 in the 1905-06 season is still unmatched, 105 years on.  Yet he won only six caps for Wales, over a four year period – the national side’s loss was very much the club’s gain.

Josh Drauniniu, appears to have Hop’s try-scoring record firmly in his sights after just two months at the club. Last weekend he grabbed four touchdowns at Moseley, becoming the sixth London Welshman – after Micky Bell, David Lubliner, Lennie Woodard, Andy Currier and Tom Brown – to achieve that feat in league rugby.  He now leads the Championship scoring charts with nine in eight games, and having been credited with a hat-trick at London Scottish in August, he’s on twelve from just ten starts.  Josh’s record in league rugby over the last three years – two with Exeter in National One, and last season in the Premiership with Quins - is 37 tries in 49 appearances (45 starts); not quite on a par with Hop’s 103 tries in 113 games over five seasons (1904-09) but an incredible record in the modern game, where defences - helped by some questionable interpretation of the laws which has conspired against the fluid, running game - have been so dominant in recent years.

Bristol make the trip up the M4 on a high, having picked-up only their second win of the season at home to Nottingham last Sunday.  They opened the campaign with three defeats, at home to Rotherham (26-24) and Doncaster (26-12) and at Esher (29-27), before a 13-13 draw at Moseley bucked the trend and they finally claimed their first win, 21-7 at home to Pirates, at the end of last month.  Given our own capitulation at the Mennaye, that result alone is enough to keep Welsh players and supporters’ feet on the ground after our 68-22 win at Moseley last Saturday, which is comfortably our biggest away win in league rugby.  Yet having turned over one of the Championship’s top four sides, Bristol struggled against Bedford and Worcester, collecting a solitary bonus point against the Blues, prior to last week’s win, in which they claimed their first try-bonus of the season in a 32-28 victory which was sealed with an 80th minute score from flanker Jamie Miller.

That victory has lifted Bristol to 9th, level with Esher on 14 points.  Mike Schmid’s side have failed to build on their victory over Welsh three weeks ago, collecting only two points from back-to-back fixtures with the division’s bottom two clubs, Birmingham Solihull and Plymouth.  With sixth-placed Rotherham just five points ahead after a run of three defeats from four games, Paul Hull’s men will be starting to look up the table rather than back over their shoulders, with fixtures against Bees and Albion to follow their trip to ODP.  Welsh, on the other hand, face the daunting prospect of a trip to Bedford (live on Sky for those who haven’t got tickets for the Manics at Brixton) and a first visit in nearly seven years from Worcester, now led, of course, by former Bristol coach Richard Hill.

Our first – and so far last – live appearance on Sky was in the play-off semi-final at the Mem at the beginning of May. Despite Dom Shabbo’s charge-down try in the first minute, the home side ultimately progressed to the final in some comfort, although Errie Claassens’ late try made the scoreline a more respectable 28-15 and gave a better reflection of Welsh’s contribution to the evening’s entertainment.  But that win was Bristol’s 50th over London Welsh in the 73 meetings to-date, and our biggest win dates back to November 1969, a 21-3 victory at ODP in the days when tries were only worth three points apiece.  In league rugby, our paths first crossed in 1998-99, when we completed a return from the brink of obscurity and Bristol, conversely, found themselves relegated from the top flight for the first time.  In the four seasons that we’ve spent side-by-side at level two, Bristol have won both fixtures on three occasions (1998-99, 2004-05, and 2009-10) while we claimed the home-and-away double in 2003-04.  In summary, if Bristol beat us, they finish top of the league – just don’t mention words like ‘play-offs’ and ‘promotion’…