To say Bristol should have won this might be stretching it but they would certainly have been worthy of it. A win at Northampton, whatever the form of the home team, was the kind of result all but out of the question for them earlier in the season, when just avoiding a hammering at home was the summit of their ambitions. Yet even a small sequence of wins can have a remarkable effect on a team.
“The way they’ve grown as a team is amazing,” the Northampton flanker Teimana Harrison said. “When we first played them they weren’t that threatening, but now, man, they’ve turned things round. You look at the calibre of players they’ve got – the back three is deadly. I think they’ll cause some upsets in the near future.”
In the end Bristol came away with a bonus point, which tucks them in yet closer to Worcester, just a point behind them at the foot of the table. On this form Sale, seven ahead, are within sight as well. The relegation battle is on again.
No doubt there are a number of reasons to explain the upturn, but the most obvious is the arrival of the New Zealander Jason Woodward, who recently kept Julian Savea out of the Super Rugby-winning Hurricanes team. After trying him at centre, Bristol have installed him in his favourite position, full-back, and given him the goalkicking duties.
He is a big bruiser with a light touch, pace and a powerful boot. Pretty much the full package in other words. What is more, he is England-qualified through a grandparent and has a girlfriend from Manchester, whom he met while studying at Hartpury College. Since then, she has followed him to Australia, where he played for the Rebels, to New Zealand, before accompanying him back here. Full-back is not an obvious point of weakness for Eddie Jones at the moment, but Woodward is class.
He scored 21 points, including the try of the match, Bristol’s second, which he started with a chip from out of his own 22 and finished with pace when accepting an inside ball from Tom Varndell. That earned Bristol the lead again, 55 minutes into the game, but they surrendered it immediately when JJ Hanrahan charged down Will Cliff’s clearance from the restart for Northampton’s bonus-point try. Woodward’s fourth penalty drew Bristol level on the hour but the home team pulled away in the final 10 minutes with a penalty from Stephen Myler and a drop goal from Harry Mallinder.
Woodward finished the game on the sidelines, victim of a nasty clash of heads with Harrison. By the letter of World Rugby’s severe new guideline it should have been a penalty, the minimum sanction for accidental contact with the head. Olly Robinson, son of Andy and rapidly developing into as fine a flanker, argued the case vehemently and with immaculate logic, but the referee would not be moved. The referee was right – and yet, in the current climate that World Rugby has created, wrong.
A penalty then, with two minutes to go, might have thrown Bristol a lifeline but Northampton were able to finish the match the stronger. A bonus-point win, in the context of their recent form, is welcome. Then again they remain just below Leicester in the table and we all know what’s just happened there. Jim Mallinder, the director of rugby, did not appear for his regular post-match debrief with the press because of a meeting he had to attend, into which we are told to read nothing.
A valuable win this may have been but it was far from convincing, the inordinate power of Louis Picamoles and that error by Cliff the main differences between the sides. If you had been asked to pick which of the sides was haunted by fear of relegation you would not have gone for Bristol.
Northampton Foden; Elliott (Estelles 12), Burrell, Hanrahan (Mallinder 67), North; Myler, Groom (Dickson 70); A Waller (E Waller 68), Haywood, Brookes (Hill 62), Lawes, Day (Craig 68), Wood (capt), Harrison, Picamoles (Gibson 67).
Tries Picamoles, Haywood, Wood, Hanrahan. Cons Myler 3. Pen Myler. Drop goal Mallinder.
Bristol Woodward (Palamo 78); Wallace, Palamo (Arscott 70), Hurrell, Varndell; Jarvis (Searle 62), Cliff (R Williams 62); Traynor (Bevington 62), Hawkins (Crumpton 53), Ford-Robinson (Cortes 62), Tuohy, Glynn (Sorenson 60), Fenton-Wells (Lam 67), Robinson (capt), Eadie.
Tries Eadie, Woodward. Cons Woodward 2. Pens Woodward 4.
Referee A Jackson. Attendance 14,872.
