It was a perfect day for Rugby, and Bristol University could not afford leaving the pitch on a loss. Motivation on the Bristol side was high and they defeated Gloucestershire through some spectacular play and decisive attacking moves. Individual skill by the likes of Adam Clarke and Ed Tofts gave the edge to Bristol’s great performance.

The first half started well for Bristol with two early tries signed Raphael Guibout and Adam Clarke. Raphael, playing right winger, made an amazing run beating two defenders along the touchline and cut back into midfield where his speed left the opposition rooted. Adam scored through a clever dummy pass, and went straight through to touchdown between the posts. Confidence was high on the Bristol side and probably too much so, as Gloucestershire responded with some aggressive attacks and completed their sets of six. This drove Bristol defending on their try line at two occasions and Gloucestershire scored at both of these. Defence was poor in the first half for Bristol University, which meant Gloucestershire made a lot of ground at each of their sets of six. Luckily, at the end of this half, Bristol was still in the lead by two conversions completed by Dave Bohm.

The only way for Bristol to keep this lead was by organising its defence better and making sure they completed its sets of six. This is exactly what they did and Adam Clarke scored thanks to this, his amazing skills and an offensive game brilliantly conducted by Ed Tofts. Tofts was on most rucks, varying play from devastating scoop and runs to offloads out wide or infield to props James Keeley, Brendan Cook or John Parker. Defence was also improved and bogged the opponents down in their half for a while. Ben then added to the score for Bristol with a try scored with shear brawn. Both Lee (UWE!) and Chris (French!) failed to score by inches from the try line. Adam Clarke then scored again after dummying the Gloucestershire defence to complete a spectacular Hat-trick! Bristol's domination of the second half was settled with an amazing 30 yard run (to everyone’s dismay) by Tom “Ginger” Curtis who scored between the posts. James Sedgeley increased the toll as he took the ball at pace at the right moment and went straight through a dogleg in the Gloucestershire defence. The 3 cheers to Gloucestershire cheered by Bristol at the final whistle was followed by a silence of defeat from the visiting team.

Article by Bristorl University RL
18 Nov 2005