Talk to anyone in Bristol and they will concede the waiting game has been painful. Seven years is more than an itch in rugby; to be outside the Premiership for so long has tested everyone’s faith. “Our support has been amazing when you consider we’ve had seven years in the wilderness,” says Chris Booy, the club’s chairman. Saturday’s eagerly awaited comeback against Harlequins at Twickenham has a distinct whiff of the promised land about it.
The real hard work, however, starts now. Even Booy, who helped rescue his battered old local club from financial oblivion and encouraged the billionaire businessman Steve Lansdown to invest in a brighter future, concedes instant relegation would seriously drain morale: “Having expended all this time and energy the last thing you want to do is go back and start again. We don’t just want to survive in the Premiership, we want to move on into the top end of the Premiership and, ultimately, be competing in Europe. That’s our plan.”
With Lansdown’s money – his estimated worth of £1.45bn leaves Bath’s chief backer, Bruce Craig, in the shade – having helped to transform Ashton Gate into an impressive 27,000-capacity arena shared with Bristol City, it makes the next few weeks vital. The good news is half-decent promoted teams mostly stay up; in the past 12 seasons, nine have survived. Slightly less promising, at first glance, is the shortage of Test-playing stardust in Andy Robinson’s squad, a consequence of a lack of recruitment time since their elevation was confirmed in late May.
The sad trajectory of London Welsh – twice promoted at Bristol’s expense, twice instantly relegated – underlines the potential pitfalls but the rise of Exeter, who have not looked back since defeating their West Country cousins in the 2010 Championship play-off final, offers more encouragement.
The Chiefs coach, Rob Baxter, believes Bristol can compete strongly if they start with the right mindset. “Winning and losing was never a big issue for us in that first year. I know that sounds daft but it was more about the attitude the players took on to the field. We decided we’d worked very hard to get into the Premiership and weren’t going to waste a year feeling miserable and sorry for ourselves. We just said we were going to enjoy it; every game we played we tried to win. There wasn’t one when we went out seeing if we could scrap for a losing bonus point.”
It is positive advice Bristol would do well to heed. Happily they have some promising young assistant coaches in the former Wales internationals Dwayne Peel and Jonathan Thomas, while the forwards coach, Mark Bakewell, is among the best around. Bakewell, a Kiwi who played and coached in Australia for years and has also worked with Bath, Brive, Béziers, Suntory and Tonga, has no illusions about the challenge ahead. “In a lot of ways the Premiership is the toughest competition in the world and you’ve got to treat it as such. If not you’ll get burnt,” he says.
“From a psychological point of view you’ve got to be very strong. There’s a battle to win the trophy, there’s the battle to make the semi-finals, there’s the battle to qualify for Europe and there’s the relegation battle. Every team is in a battle. There’s not many competitions like that around the world. That’s one of the reasons why it is so attritional, which has positives and negatives attached. Even subconsciously it’s restrictive.”
For that reason Bakewell reckons Sale are a useful initial model: a big pack, a good set piece and a good home record. Bristol will have to improve markedly on their nervous home display against Doncaster in the play-off final second leg – they lost 34-32 but were promoted 60-47 on aggregate – to stop this month’s muscular visitors, Northampton, Exeter and Saracens, but Bakewell is braced for the long haul.
History, he emphasises, will count for little: “After seven years people still believe Bristol deserve to be in the Premiership. I firmly believe you don’t deserve anything unless you earn it and you only earn it if you win on the scoreboard.”
Potential high-class reinforcements are on the way, with Booy revealing a couple of signings are in the pipeline: “We think we’ve got one but we can’t announce that yet. We’re also hoping to get another.” The former will be a southern hemisphere back, the latter a forward; stick them in alongside Jack Lam and Soane Tonga’uiha and any hint of a soft Bristolian underbelly will swiftly disappear.
There is also another key date inked into Booy’s diary. On 18 November, Bristol will visit their nearest rivals Bath in a game awash with irony. Not so long ago it was Craig’s millions that threatened to transform the West Country landscape. How sweet would it be for Bristol to bridge the modern Avon divide? “We’re playing them on my birthday so the boys clearly understand what they’ve got to do,” chuckles the 63-year-old. “There’s only one present I want.”
It would also soothe his continuing anger at the “unfair system” that denied Bristol automatic promotion until now despite them topping the Championship table for five seasons out of seven.
The immediate priority, though, is Quins. It is a long time – 1988 to be precise – since the same clubs met in a Twickenham Cup final and even longer since evocative Bristolian names such as Mike Rafter, Dave Rollitt, John Pullin, Alan Morley, Richard Harding and Bob Hesford made their England debuts. That illustrious heritage, even so, remains a powerful motivator.
“We’ve had some tough times but I’ve stuck at it because you don’t want to lose the club on your watch,” Booy says. “At the beginning it was all about survival and making sure the club was still in existence. We are talking almost 130 years of history and it’s important. It’s not going to be easy because the league gets better each year but we believe we’re going to be ready.”
Bet against them at your peril.
Staying Alive?
Year Promoted side Outcome
2004-05 Worcester Stayed Up (9th)
2005-06 Bristol Stayed Up (11th)
2006-07 Harlequins Stayed Up (7th)
2007-08 Leeds Relegated
2008-09 Northampton Stayed Up (8th)
2009-10 Leeds Stayed Up (10th)
2010-11 Exeter Stayed Up (8th)
2011-12 Worcester Stayed Up (10th)
2012-13 London Welsh Relegated
2013-14 Newcastle Stayed Up (11th)
2014-15 London Welsh Relegated
2015-16 Worcester Stayed Up (10th)
2016-17 Bristol ?
