The first half was a torrid introduction to a tough sport for the new players as Bristol were mostly outsized and inexperienced compared to the visiting UWIC team. Bristol spent most of the first 40 minutes in their own half and conceded 24 points. The UWIC attacks drew Bristol into the area of the breakdown and the first few tries were extorted from the resulting overlaps. However, words from Ian Baggs and Gareth Greeves restructured the defence and quickly resolved some of the communication problems that had led to the UWIC scores. The Bristol defence also improved after some inspirational tackling from Brendon Cook and Dave Bohm and Bristol were able to hold UWIC to 24 points and around the half way mark for the remainder of the first half. The performance in the second half showed promise of

The first Bristol try was created by series of fast attacks, running off tackles and some wonderful offloads by James Sedgley and Tom Verber which drew men into the breakdown area. Bristol were then able to throw the ball wide and take advantage of the overlap, the ball being touched down by Chrisophe Harper. Bohm converted to make the score 6 - 30. The second Bristol try came after some agile running from Rob Boughton gained Bristol field position, and after a several phases it was left to full back Graham Hargreaves, to take the ball under the posts. Hargreaves jinked and dived from approx. half a meter out, an act which took his cumulative tally of yards per try to 2 and cemented his reputation as the Gary Lineker of the sport. The conversion was taken by Greeves, who, ever the showman, managed to hit the post before the ball fell over the bar.

The final score was 36 - 12, but Bristol can take solace from the fact that the second half score was 12 - 12 and from the marked improvement during the 80 minutes in both the team play, particularly the communication in defence, and among individuals new to the game.

Article by Bristol University RL
20 Oct 2005