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Bristol produced one of their best performances of the season to thrash Pau 41-14 in their European Rugby Challenge Cup encounter last Sunday. - 14/12/2016 12:58
Bristol produced one of their best performances of the season to thrash Pau 41-14 in their European Rugby Challenge Cup encounter last Sunday.
Now, as they travel to France for Friday’s rematch, the challenge for the English side is to back that performance up and record what would be their third win of the season.
In Pool 4, Bristol are looking to keep up the pressure on pacesetters Cardiff Blues and Bath and back-to-back successes over Pau would go a long way to doing just that.
Jack Wallace, Tom Varndell, Billy Searle, Luke Arscott, Thretton Palamo and a brace from Chris Brooker gave Bristol a comfortable victory last weekend, but things will be a whole lot tougher out in France against a side who are struggling in eleventh place in the Top 14.
That said, the motivation for the Ashton Gate outfit is to keep up the momentum from their previous win in what has been a difficult season to date.
“It was a really pleasing result but looking at the video there are still a lot of work-ons,” said Bristol forwards coach Mark Irish on last weekend’s win.
“It was a great win to get some momentum going into the return leg in Pau on Friday. Whatever we face out there the same things need to be done as we did last week.”
Bristol – who have five points to show from their three Challenge Cup matches to date – are three behind Bath and will be hoping the Blues can do them a favour by beating their near rivals on Thursday.
Pau, meanwhile, prop up the pool having lost all three of the games so far but won’t roll over at the 13,819 capacity Stade du Hameau.
Tom Varndell scored a superb hat-trick as Bristol made it back-to-back wins over Pau in the European Rugby Challenge Cup. - 16/12/2016 20:55
Tom Varndell scored a superb hat-trick as Bristol made it back-to-back wins over Pau in the European Rugby Challenge Cup.
The English side were 18-28 winners in France, Varndell scoring twice in the second half to add to his first before the break in what was a devastating display of clinical finishing.
Jack Wallace had scored Bristol’s first but a four-try bonus point was a good night’s work for a team who have struggled in the Aviva Premiership so far this term.
Bristol had been convincing 41-14 winners in the reverse fixture at Ashton Gate, but the second leg in France got off to a dicey start for the English side.
Only four minutes had elapsed before Jon Fisher limed off inured and the game then burst into life. Pau's Thibault Daubagna opened the scoring with a penalty before Wallace put Bristol back ahead, collecting Thretton Palamo’s pass to dive over. Jason Woodward converted, but that wasn’t the end of the early drama.
Scrum-half Daubagna raced over for Pau and added the extras before Jale Vatubua smashed his way through to score. At 15-7 down Bristol were up against it and they then lost another key man when skipper Jordan Crane was replaced by Giorgi Nemsadze. Woodward had missed with a penalty effort and Daubagna showed him how to do it with three points of his own in the 25th minute.
A high-octane first period was then completed as Varndell scored the try of the first period. The flying winger picked the ball up inside his own half, showed the French defence a dummy and flew home to the try line.
Adrian Jarvis converted as Bristol went into the break 18-14 behind.
The second period started with a brief skirmish between the two teams, a pre-curser to what was to follow.
Bristol’s Rob Hawkins saw yellow before Pau’s Romain Buros did likewise to make it 14-a-side. Matthew Tierney then sent the French side down to 13 and with both sides ringing the changes, the game turned into a stop-start affair.
Then, just after the hour mark, Bristol struck with Varndell the man to do the damage again.
The former Leicester ace, who looked dangerous throughout, collected Jarvis’ kick through to score. The conversion was added to set up a thrilling final quarter.
At that stage Pau were still in the game but they were floored once Varndell completed his hat-trick in the 71st minute. Jarvis converted once again and although Bristol pushed for a fifth, their failure to score again failed to dampen the spirits of the travelling fans.
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