Bristol v Newcs, 14.30 New Year's Day

[jimKRFC]

Bris side;
15. Charles Piutau; 14. Siva Naulago, 13. Semi Radradra, 12. Piers O’Conor, 11. Ioan Lloyd; 10. Callum Sheedy, 9. Andy Uren; 1. Peter McCabe, 2. George Kloska, 3. Jake Armstrong, 4. Dave Attwood, 5. Joe Joyce, 6. Steven Luatua (c), 7. Jake Heenan, 8. Nathan Hughes.

Subs: 16. Aaron Thompson, 17. Andrew Turner, 18. Kyle Sinckler, 19. John Hawkins, 20. Fitz Harding, 21. Harry Randall, 22. Alapati Leiua, 23. Luke Morahan.

Newcs;

15 Tom Arscott
14 Adam Radwan
13 George Wacokecoke
12 Matias Orlando
11 Ben Stevenson
10 Toby Flood
9 Sam Stuart
1 Trevor Davison
2 Jamie Blamire
3 Logovi'i Mulipola
4 Greg Peterson
5 Marco Fuser
6 Sean Robinson
7 Mark Wilson (captain)
8 Philip van der Walt

Replacements
16 Charlie Maddison
17 Kyle Cooper
18 Mark Tampin
19 Connor Collett
20 Josh Basham
21 Louis Schreuder
22 Brett Connon
23 Gareth Owen

Very green sub front row for us, hopefully they can do a decent job. Should do ok away from the scrum though.

[Raggs]

Kicking off now.

[twitchy]

This is a good game.

[twitchy]

That was so bad.

[Mikey Brown]

Fat Nathan Hughes is a far more impactful player to the lighter one.

[Scrumhead]

This is a good game.

Agreed. I’ve enjoyed this game so far.

I’ve been impressed by Blamire. Decent basics and lively in the loose.

[Mellsblue]

What. A. Try..........nearly.

[fivepointer]

Enjoyable and competitive game. Newcastle showing up well, but faded a touch in 2nd half. They will be rueing missed chances to score.
Bris came through well in the end. Sinckler and Randall off the bench made their mark.

[twitchy]

They messed up some golden scoring opportunities.

[Timbo]

Sink and Randall the difference in the end.

[FKAS]

Good impact off the bench for Bristol but Falcons blew at least one probably two maybe three tries. They should have had a healthy lead at half time.

[Puja]

Walder and Richards deserve an awful lot of respect. I don't think there's anyone that looked at that squad before the season started and thought it was Premiership quality (certainly I don't think anyone's predictions in the thread has them anything but 12th). For them to have 16 points from 5 games (albeit with one gifted victory) and be pushing Bristol close is incredible.

Puja

[FKAS]

Walder and Richards deserve an awful lot of respect. I don't think there's anyone that looked at that squad before the season started and thought it was Premiership quality (certainly I don't think anyone's predictions in the thread has them anything but 12th). For them to have 16 points from 5 games (albeit with one gifted victory) and be pushing Bristol close is incredible.

Puja

Agreed. They've done a great job. Had Graham been available to play 8 last night then I think the game would have been even closer. Just so aggressive and niggly, like the rest of the side to be fair.

[jimKRFC]

Newcastle the more cohesive team for sure. If they had a bit more control then they would have won it in the first half. Did seem to struggle as soon as Bristol played with some pace and width though.

The Bris pack definitely did not have a good day, not sure how much was Newcs being good or Bristol being disrupted because of the missing players. So far Bristol are not playing as well as last season but winning ugly will do for now.

[Scrumhead]

Walder and Richards deserve an awful lot of respect. I don't think there's anyone that looked at that squad before the season started and thought it was Premiership quality (certainly I don't think anyone's predictions in the thread has them anything but 12th). For them to have 16 points from 5 games (albeit with one gifted victory) and be pushing Bristol close is incredible.

Puja

Agreed. They've done a great job. Had Graham been available to play 8 last night then I think the game would have been even closer. Just so aggressive and niggly, like the rest of the side to be fair.

Yep. I’d agree with that.

I think even if Wilson had played 8 and Collett had been on, it may have made the difference. Van der Walt was the biggest culprit for butchering their try scoring opportunities with poor control at the base when a try looked the more likely outcome.

[Mikey Brown]

He didn’t look much like an 8 to me, was surprised when I realised that’s where he was playing.

[FKAS]

I was surprised because I'd heard some Falcons fans bigging up his impact last season and how he was the 8 they'd been needing. On that display he'll do well to make the team next week if some more bodies are available.