Depleted Bees battle hard and restrict second-placed Bristol to only four tries
Dec 7 2009 by Paul Castles, Birmingham Mail
BIRMINGHAM & Solihull battled hard and restricted second-placed Bristol to only four tries despite fielding a scratch side and naming only six replacements as three players were unavailable due to swine flu and others with flu.
But Bees assistant coach Eugene Martin was more than happy with his side’s performance as they conceded only a converted penalty try in the second half having trailed 21-0 at the break.
Martin said: “Given the players that we had available for selection with some playing out of position I thought the effort was unbelievable so I am very proud of the lads.
“Our defence on the line was tremendous and the guys stuck to their guns with a simple game plan. But this is all pre-season stuff for us as the play-offs are our lifeline to avoid relegation.”
Bristol dominated early play, were unable to breach the line in the opening 15 minutes but crossed it three times in the remaining 25 minutes of the first period with fly-half Adrian Jarvis keeping a clean sheet.
A Bees error at their own lineout led to the first try as the throw was too long. Flanker Iain Grieve was the quickest to the loose ball and saw centre Junior Fatialofa racing through to take the crash ball.
Ten minutes later Bristol added a second from a rolling maul for hooker Ross Johnston to put the ball down. On the stroke of half time scrum half Robbie Shaw picked up from the base of the scrum to dash for the line.
In the final 15 minutes Bristol were camped out close to the Bees line. Five disrupted scrums in quick succession led to flanker Rob Bell being yellow-carded then a penalty try was awarded at the reset and Jarvis completed the scoring.
BRISTOL: L Arscott; L Robinson, J Adams, J Fatialofa (L Eves, 70), T Arscott; A Jarvis (C Ashwin, 70), R Shaw (S Alford, 66); A Clarke (W Thompson, 79) R Johnston (D Blaney, 66), W Thompson (M Vunipola, 60), N Budgett (D Barry, 70), R Winters (capt), I Grieve, R Pennycook (J Phillips, 30-ht; 66), D Montagu.
BEES: S Hunt; R McLean, W Lawson (R Tomlinson, 73), E Bineham, M Culpin; B Patston (R Petty, 29), S Brown (J Williams, 73); M Long (capt), S Philpott (G Thomas, 73), J Reid, A Davidson, K Dowding, J Preece, R Bell, A Clayton. Reps: D Garner, C Mitchell (only six replacements)
Referee: P Knowles (South East RFU).
