Wasteful Moseley miss golden opportunity for season’s upset against out-of-sorts Bristol
Oct 17 2009 by Brian Dick, Birmingham Mail
WASTEFUL Moseley missed a golden opportunity to cause the upset of the season against an out-of-sorts Bristol side last night.
With one play left in the first half Ian Smith’s men were in the midst of a superb smash-and-grab raid.
Three visits to the home 22 had produced a hat-trick of penalties for in-form goal-kicker Tristan Roberts.
And a solid defensive display had kept their illustrious hosts down to only three points from the boot of Adrian Jarvis.
But a momentary lapse allowed Bristol to release full-back Luke Arscott who, via scrum-half Jason Spice, set up a try for brother Tom Arscott.
Jarvis’ conversion made it 10-9 at the break and Bristol never looked back.
The Red and Blacks struggled to get a foothold in the second period as eventually Bristol eased to a comfortable yet mundane victory.
But Moseley made sure it wasn’t easy in the opening period with Neil Mason and Aly Muldowney doing the bulk of their donkey work.
It took 17 minutes before either side involved the scorer, Jarvis accepted a penalty in front of the Moseley posts. But James Rodwell snaffled the resulting kick off and created the position from which Mariano Sambucetti entered a ruck illegally.
Roberts levelled the scores and then put the Billesley Boys ahead on the half-hour when Bristol had to hold on to Henry Trinder’s grubber.
The young fly-half then made it 9-3 just before the break as Paul Hull’s men pulled down a driven lineout.
But that was as close as they got to taking something other than plaudits from a brave performance.
Jarvis made it 13-9 four minutes after the restart as Richard Stott strayed in front of a Roberts up and under.
And the rest of the points came after the Moseley scrum succumbed to home pressure.
Jarvis landed a long-range effort after 53 minutes and then with 12 to go the former Harlequins playmaker made it 19-9 with this fifth success.
Moseley had one chance close to the end but Muldowney fumbled close to the line.
BRISTOL: Arscott L; Arscott T, Adams, Fatialofa, Norton; Jarvis, Spice; Irish, Blaney (Johnston 54), Crompton (Thompson 54), Phillips, Sambucetti (Barry 71), Grieve, Pennycook R (Merriman 71), Montagu. Replacements: Shaw, Ashwin, Eves
MOSELEY: Speel; Thirlby, Trinder (Borgen 71), Reay (Keys 40), Mensah-Coker; Roberts, Taylor (Pasqualin 76); Sigley (Williams 59), Oselton (Caves 64), Harden, Muldowney, Stott (Hall 59), Mason, Pennycook C (Rowland 76), Rodwell.
Referee: Andrew Small (RFU)
