As was feared by most Bristol fans when the post Bath match haze of Thatchers Rose finally lifted, Sale Sharks snatched a grizzly win at the Gate that was mainly smash but with a decisive bit of grab at the death when Luke James dabbed down in the corner for a match winning try after Bristol had been leading by a point with seven minutes to go.
There are no real complaints. The Sharks had the perfect game plan to negate the free-flowing aspirations of Bristol by kicking for territory, forming an impenetrable defensive wall across the pitch, marmelising anything that moved and then picking up points from the ensuing penalties. Even their grey shirt colour was appropriate for their style of play and made them look filthy before a shot had been fired in anger. There is no doubt that Bristol were expecting an arm wrestle but in reality got a full-blown game of drop-down British Bulldog with a South African twist and very rarely made it to the other side. Full credit to Sale as they were utter machines, but in the end, Bristol just didn’t have enough rage against them to get the win. Whilst it is probably somewhat of an exaggeration and a bit unfair to say that Sale’s approach felt like the Antichrist to Bristol’s Angel Gabriel, the devil was certainly in their detail in the way they nullified the threat of the Bears but surely over the length of a season the neutral fan will hope that the glory of running rugby prevails. Hat tip to Alex Sanderson for the way he prepared his team and despite my previous reservations, his post-match interview was as respectful and humble to the contest as I had hoped, and I am sure that he had a good chat with Pat Lam post-match over a glass of Rose although he still couldn’t resist a TV moment with his plan for a ‘Lazy Malbec Sunday’.
The omens hadn’t been good before the game when Steven Luatua limped out of the warmup (even though his shuffling gate didn’t look much different than normal) and Pat announced that Semi Radrada would be out for at least six weeks and to add insult to literal injury the BT Sports Commentary team clearly had some sort of hat dare going on that diminished the gravity of the situation. I genuinely didn’t think that anyone could top Lawrence Dallaglio’s mid-life crisis reverse cap monstrosity from last week, but Craig Doyle pushed him mighty close with a piece of filthy cranial fashionwear that can only be described as unacceptable and of which even a garden gnome would be ashamed.
Anyway, the first half developed in such a way that even Scrappy Doo would have disapproved and there was one passage of play in the first half that was so disjointed, so broken, that it was a blessed relief that someone knocked on and we were able to have something as solid and stable as a scrum for a few minutes. Sale’s defensive line was as straight and as wide as Baths’ had been jaggedy and gap-ridden and they clearly had no intention of letting Bristol’s’ flair players get any space whatsoever. Credit to them as they smashed every contact they were offered and shut down every bit of space out wide that briefly opened up. The fact that Bristol had to resort to box kicking on a regular basis is evidence of Sale’s success but there are times when the phrase ‘rapid line speed’ or a ‘great rush defence’ seems to be a euphemism for offside and it did seem like virtually every time Piers O’Conor received the oval he had at least two Sharks hitting him man and ball. It does make you wonder. And as for poor Siva Nualago, he must have been reflecting on what exactly he has signed up to. Apart from the opening try against Falcons he has had very little space to work in and having missed the metre-fest of the Bath game, must be wondering what Pat meant when he was sold on the concept of regular running rugby. And sadly it was a case of less piston and more paralysed for Purdy out on the wing this week.
That said, Bristol manfully tried to solve the puzzle that the Sharks had set and as usual their efforts cannot be faulted, but where the game against Bath was like playing Connect 4 against an infant and winning every time, this was more akin to working out the rules to Mah Jong as you go along. It was a contest of such small margins that on another day Bristol would have got the win and perhaps the failure to secure the rolling maul try on the cusp of half time was a turning point. Clearly both the officials saw no foul play as the Bristol shove miraculously collapsed just before the line with Sharks hanging off it like an outtake from the final scene in Jaws. It was also very odd how Luke Pearce initially seemed to dispense with the TMO and in the spirit of his desire to speed up every single part of the game asked, ‘Bristol – do you believe you scored that try?’ Given that I assume the answer was, ‘Yes,’ I don’t understand why he didn’t give it. Don’t ask questions if you can’t deal with the answer you get has always been one of my mantras but the fact that at one moment Sale were in retreat and in full panic mode and the next they have the put into a scrum makes me think it isn’t one that he subscribes to. Moreover, Luke Pearce really does like the sound of his voice and appeared to scream ‘use it’ within a millisecond of the ball emerging from a ruck or scrum as if he was more worried that both scrum halves were unaware that they were allowed to touch the ball rather than trying to get things moving. This has clearly become his ‘thing’ but if there isn’t consistency amongst all refs then it will become confusing and frustrating for both players and fans alike and after a while it really began to grate, reminding me of what I sound like trying to get my daughters ready for school. When there is school. And whilst I’m on one I may as well mention the suspicion that Will Cliff was offside on the kick through in the lead up to the final try which was actually a bit over hit and was somewhat fortuitously booted forward by Hammersley. Who would have thought that the outcome of a tight game of Union hung on a moment of poor Association Football skill? The fact that Bristol had been leading at the time makes it even more frustrating.
That said great teams find ways to adapt when things aren’t working and Bristol certainly should have been more creative in managing the game and changing things up. As fans of a well-known and hugely successful wizarding film franchise know, when the Death Eaters arrive you need to call for the Order of the Phoenix but sadly for Bristol fans they didn’t rise to the challenge and ultimately it spelled defeat. ‘We either win or we learn’ has become the latest addition to the Bears lexicon and unfortunately our two Academy products Andy Uren and Ioan Lloyd will be doing a little bit of extra homework this week. That’s not to say they played badly but just that they weren’t able to impose themselves and change the direction of the game. But let’s give them a bit of slack too. They were up against a half back pairing that delivered a masterclass in game management. Faf de Klerk’s tactical kicking and defensive awareness was impeccable and in AJ MacGinty Sale had kicking a metronome who was also able to provide a final bit of magic to grab victory at the death, with a pass so flat and filthy that the ball had to be rinsed in bleach at the end of the game. Lloyd did his best to get the Bristol backline moving despite being denied space and time and if nothing else, Andy Uren had plenty of box kicking practice. But ultimately they were literally worlds apart from their international opponents.
When it came down to it the Bears didn’t have a very extensive highlights reel save the signature pushover try but there were one or two moments that raised the pulses of the Bristol faithful. A few metres gained by Charles Piatau that offered hope but delivered disappointment, a John Afoa tap tackle on the wing that defied the laws of age and physics and one spiral kick from Ioan Lloyd that was such a thing of length, precision, and beauty that the MoD will no doubt use it to inform the development of their next generation of intercontinental ballistic missiles. And he won’t thank me for reminding him but there was one tackle by Faf de Klerk on Hughes that was so ferocious that it almost put big Nath’s wild man barnet back into plaits. But that was about it. You win or you learn, and you move on. A renewal of the Rifles cup awaits so let’s hope Bristol put Gloucester in the cross hairs and target a return to wining ways.
Filthy Rig 