Bristol bounce back with dominant victory over Swansea

By Dan McNamara, UBRFC Journalist and third year English student

At the Wednesday Night Lights charity event at Coombe Dingle, Bristol 1st XV tore apart Swansea’s defences in a crushing 57-6 win.

Bristol were looking to reinvigorate their season after a run of disappointing results in the BUCS South A league. Two closely fought contests last year, in which both teams won one apiece, showed Bristol that Swansea would be a physical side; especially in the forwards.

Their scrummaging power was on display in just the first minute of the game, as a penalty from a scrum in Bristol’s 22 provided the visitors with the first points of the match. However, Bristol soon hit back with a try from All-American hero Blake Johnson who, after a smart maul from the Bristol forwards, crashed his way over the line to take the score to 7-3.

However, Bristol couldn’t make this pressure count, and Swansea soon capitalised on this, forcing the hosts to defend on their own line to keep the opposition out. Swansea eventually made do with 3 points from another scrum penalty, taking them to within one point of the home side. Although this may have concerned some in the four hundred-strong Dingle crowd, it seemed to give the Bristol players a new attacking impetus.

A jinking run from fly-half Tom Burgess put Bristol back on the front foot, and quick recycling of the ball eventually resulted in Cal Sanders scoring Bristol’s second try of the game.

The host’s third score followed. A sniping break from Jack Bradby caught the opposition unawares, and when Swansea did scramble back in defence the scrum-half slickly offloaded the ball to the titan Bertie Cole-Fontayn, who barrelled over taking the score to 19-6 in Bristol’s favour.

Although Swansea mustered some late pressure in the closing minutes of the half, Bristol’s defence held firm, epitomised by the great work by Faysal Olabooye who defended well in the 13 channel the whole game.

The second half began as the first ended, with both sides exchanging some big hits and looking to achieve control over set-pieces. Despite Swansea’s early scrum dominance, Bristol’s front row became increasingly resolute as the game went on.

Backed up by an impeccable line-out, courtesy of hookers Joe Moore and Ben Gompels, Bristol had a platform to produce thrilling attacking play in the second half.

The first try of the second period was again down to the quick-thinking of Bradby, who, after taking a quick penalty, spun the ball across to Burgess who set up Cole-Fontayn to bust through for his second try. Swansea had no reply to this, and soon afterwards Hywel Rose squeezed over in the corner to take the score to 31-6.

The try of the day soon followed. After recovering a scrambled kick on the halfway line, full-back Fergus Wood managed to break through a gap in the Swansea defence then offloaded to centre Ali Greig. Surrounded by players, Greig deftly shifted the ball to a supporting Olabooye. The latter grubber kicked the ball forward first time and showed his pace to dive on the ball to complete an outstanding score for Bristol.

The hosts had really started to open up their opposition at this point, aided by the impact of substitutes such as Hugh Summerhayes and Duncan Darling, and began to pile on the points in the last 20 minutes.

Two quick tries for Darling and a final score from captain Ollie Lyons capped off an incredible 57-6 victory for the 1st XV, who look to maintain this winning form against local rivals UWE at Lockleaze this coming Wednesday. The next home fixture is against Bath 2nd XV on the 28th November, so please come down and show the lads your support!

The proceeds from the tickets to this event went towards the #LiftTheStereotype campaign and the Movember charity. The former is an initiative started by UBRFC’s own Macca Hayward and his brother. In the first charity event for this campaign, the two deadlifted 100 tonnes, raising around £1200 for the mental health charity Calm. Macca described #LiftTheStereotype as ‘a campaign aimed at removing the stereotypes that surround men in today’s society’ and seeks to encourage men to ‘talk about their emotions openly and freely’.

Featured image by Smifsports

Can Bristol carry this momentum forward to push for promotion to BUCS Super Rugby? Let us know what you think!

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