Bristol U21s demolish Sarries' counterparts

Hat trick
By Duncan Wood
August 31 2002

The Bristol U21s started the defence of their title with a superb 77-8 win over Saracens this afternoon. This ceased to be a contest after about 30 minutes and Bristol simply ran amok after that.

Neil Williams's match report on the messageboard is a very comprehensive summary of events. He gets it absolutely spot on when he uses the words 'awesome' and 'dominant'.

It was a fairly subdued start, the most notable incident being Chris Morgan suffering an unfortunate recurrence of hamstring trouble.

But Bristol soon imposed themselves on the game. Forwards and backs combined with ease and moved the ball to and fro stretching the Sarries defence.

It wasn't unusual to find back row forwards sppearing wide out and handling like backs whilst the handling of players like Tom Luke in the centre was first class.

Paul Hodgson burrowed over from close range to get the first which was followed by scores for the forwards when Peter Tennet and Matt Bourne finished off great handling moves. Both forwards showed great support play to be in a position to take the scoring pass.

Sarries were fighting and had a penalty and try of their own to show for their efforts before Bristol killed this one off just before half time.

Tom Luke finished off another fluent move and then Jon Clarke ripped the defence apart with elusive running combined with a peach of a hand off to set up Duncan Hayward. 34-8 at half time.

The second half had barely begun when Paul Hodgson scampered down the blindside for his second when an ever dominant Bristol scrum shoved the Saracens pack virtually over their own line from a set scrum.

This was followed by scores for Carl Saunders and Hodgson's hat trick try was a beauty with a great move by Luke, handling by Bailey and Saunders and superb support work from 'Dodge'.

Tom Fielding and Tom Luke weaved their way through for further scores as Saracens wilted. Bristol had som much possession at this point that it was almost embarrassing. The pack were completely dominant and able to shove their opponents off their own scrum ball and steal their lineout ball as well.

Matt Styles capped a fine afternoon for the back row with two late scores to finish the game at 77-8.

Great performance. Pack absolutely superb and the backs had the skill and confidence to use the possession.