The outlook grows ever grimmer for Bristol. They did at least manage a second bonus point of the season, courtesy of a determined second-half comeback, but they remain seven points adrift at the bottom of the league they have fought so long and hard to return to. Already it looks a yawning gap, notwithstanding a solid pack of forwards, who if anything had the better of things throughout.
“We’ve got enough games,” said Andy Robinson, Bristol’s director of rugby. “There’s belief. When we stuck to task and structure today we looked a good side. We need players to be able to sustain that for the whole 80 minutes.”
Aye, there’s the rub. The 80-minute thing has been a serious problem for Bristol. That said, the 80-minute thing works both ways. Dean Richards bemoaned the same of his side and the way they let Bristol back into the contest, before declaring that very few teams can keep it up for a whole match.
Bristol’s problem is the damage they suffer during the inevitable lulls, which in their case seem to last entire halves. Here it was the first when they looked out of their depth against opponents who can play a bit, which means pretty much everyone they will face in the Premiership.
Newcastle are disappointed they did not register a bonus point themselves, of the try-scoring variety, but with this win they float serenely into the top six. They were mesmeric at times in the first half of a free-flowing contest, despite losing two members of their back division to injury, in the 10th and 11th minutes. Dom Waldouck, the second of those, staggered across the artificial turf in spectacular fashion after a blow to the head, and Bristol lost their fly-half, Tusi Pisi, at the same time.
Undoubtedly, it was the hosts who handled the disruption better. They were 5-0 up already, but through it they may just have stumbled upon a bewitching cocktail of creativity.
It probably won’t work so well if placed under more defensive scrutiny than here, but the new axis of Mike Delany, Juan Pablo Socino and Joel Hodgson worked sweetly in attack. Not that there is any significance to that running order, other than the shirt numbers they happened to be wearing. The Falcons ended up, effectively, with three fly-halves on the field, and Bristol were indeed bewitched.
Socino scored that first in the fifth minute, when he capitalised on a mix-up between Ryan Edwards and Jack Tovey down Bristol’s left, which Robinson ruefully highlighted as the difference between the two teams, come the end. Socino, certainly, could play anywhere across the midfield, a bundle of pace and power, but Hodgson was as good to watch in a blonder, willowier way.
The former, taking a turn at first receiver off an attacking scrum, put the other through a gap in the outside-centre channel for try No3, just before the break. Before that, Socino, Delany and maybe a few others had combined in a dazzling exchange of passes down the right to set up position, before Will Welch finished a series of drives at the posts for try number No2.
At 19-0 down, Bristol were in trouble. If there was hope, it lay in their set piece. They had the edge at scrum time in the first half, at least, and at the start of the second, the lineout got going too. A powerfully driven example set up Jon Fisher for their first try, in the 50th minute. Ten minutes later, they struck again, Fisher to the fore once more in a series of punchy phases, paving the way for Mitch Eadie to stroll over, and Bristol had hope at last.
They could draw no closer. Newcastle had the better of the final exchanges, during which Hodgson missed a penalty, which would have deprived the visitors of a bonus point. Both sides lost a prop to the sin bin when Wayne Barnes very suddenly lost patience at a late scrum. A sour note on which to finish a fine match. Bristol will hope it is only the match that was finished.
Newcastle: Hammersley; Tait (Agulla 10), Waldouck (Hodgson 11), Socino, Sinoti; Delany, Young (Takulua 65); Vickers (Rogers 55), Lawson (Sowrey 52), D Wilson (Welsh 52), Green, Olmstead (Witty 55), M Wilson, Welch (capt), Hogg (Vickers 76).
Tries Socino, Welch, Hodgson. Cons Delany 2. Sin-bin Rogers 76.
Bristol: J Williams; Edwards (Perenise 76), Tovey, Hurrell, Lemi; Pisi (Jarvis 11), Cliff; Traynor (Bevington 50), McMillan, Perenise (Cortes 50), Glynn, Sorenson (Phillips 50), Eadie, Lam (capt; Fisher 50), Crane.
Yellow card Cortes 76. Tries Fisher, Eadie. Cons Jarvis 2.
