Jarvis' boot wins the day
Sat, 23 Aug 2008 11:57
Bristol produced their best performance of the pre-season, as Adrian Jarvis kicked five penalties in Bristol's 15-12 victory over the Glasgow Warriors Firhill Arena on Friday.
Bristol were forced to hang on in the final stages as an injury-time try from John Beattie gave the home team hope, but Bristol deserved to take the spoils after a display which hinted that things are starting to come together for Richard Hill's side.
The first half in particular saw the best rugby played by the team in their three fixtures to date. The set pieces were solid, backs ran with pace and precision and the forwards played with power and purpose in attack and defence.
The only thing missing was a try, but Bristol did create openings and will take heart from that as indeed they will from gutsing out a win.
After an early injury for Luke Arscott, who landed heavily after competing for a high ball, Bristol quickly took control of the game with Adrian Jarvis mixing play well, spreading the ball when it was on and kicking well from hand.
Jarvis opened the scoring after six minutes with a penalty when the Warriors were caught offside after a knocking on a Jarvis up and under and landed a second after eight minutes when the home team were penalised for crossing.
Bristol started to play some really good rugby with the backs and forwards linking well and, although Jarvis missed another penalty after 11 minutes, he made amends two minutes later for a 9-0 lead.
Junior Fatialofa was starting to punch holes in midfield and one such break almost led to a score from Kevin Maggs, but the centre knocked on in contact as he neared the posts.
Jarvis made it 12-0 after great work from Andrew Blowers on the floor, but the game turned as half time approached when Jason Hobson was sinbinned. The prop had been warned for fighting and referee Dave Pearson lost patience when Hobson came in at the side of a ruck.
In his absence Dan Ward-Smith had to leave the field to allow Peter Bracken to come on and scrum and the Glasgow No.8, Richie Vernon, capitalised on the space as he thundered from the back of a scrum to almost make the line.
Bristol hauled him down but the ball was quickly moved to Lome Fa'atau who crossed in the corner after a fine looping pass. Dan Parks converted to narrow the gap to 7-12 at half-time.
Predictably, Glasgow tried to take advantage of the numerical superiority at the start of the second period, but Bristol dug deep and were even able to overcome a Jarvis penalty miss.
Anthony Elliott produced some great work in defence to snuff out a dangerous cross kick and Tom Arscott scrambled back to cover a grubber kick.
With numbers restored and replacements entering the fray on the hour, Jarvis extended the lead to 15-7 as Glasgow infringed again.
With the clock counting down, Glasgow threw everything at, Bristol whose defence was valiant until finally running out of tacklers allowing John Beattie to score in the corner for what turned out to be a consolation score.
Sean Lineen, the Glasgow coach, said: "I'm really pleased with two tries to none, and when we were good we were very good, but there are things there such as the contact and set-piece we obviously have to work on. But this is pre-season and this is the test we need."
Scorers:
For Glasgow Warriors:
Pens: Jarvis 5
For Bristol:
Tries: Fa'atau, Beattie
Con: Parks
Yellow card: Jason Hobson (Glasgow Warriors, 38 - foul play)
Teams:
Glasgow Warriors: 15 Ruaridh Jackson, 14 Lome Fa'atau, 13 Max Evans, 12 Andrew Henderson, 11 Thom Evans, 10 Dan Parks, 9 Mark McMillan, 8 Richie Vernon, 7 John Barclay, 6 Kelly Brown, 5 Dan Turner, 4 Opeta Palepoi, 3 Moray Low, 2
Dougie Hall, 1 Ed Kalman.
Replacements - from: Eric Milligan, Gary Strain, Alastair Kellock, Richie Gray, Calum Forrester, John Beattie, Colin Gregor, Daryl Gibson, Hefin O'Hare, Chris Kinloch.
Bristol: 15 Luke Arscott, 14 Tom Arscott, 13 Junior Fatialofa, 12 Kevin Maggs, 11 Anthony Elliott, 10 Adrian Jarvis, 9 Graeme Beveridge, 8 Dan Ward-Smith, 7 Joe El Abd (captain), 6 Andrew Blowers, 5 Robert Sidoli, 4 Roy Winters, 3 Jason Hobson, 2 David Blaney, 1 Alex Clarke.
Replacements - from: Scott Linklater, Mark Irish, Nathan Budgett, Mariano Sambucetti, Redford Pennycook, Alfie To'oala, Haydn Thomas, Ed Barnes, Vunga Lilo.
Referee: Dave Pearson (RFU)
