By John Harding

British & Irish Cup

Cardiff Blues Premiership Select 7 Bristol 31

WING Aron Chapman made his debut by scoring two of Bristol’s five tries as they took maximum points from their opening British & Irish Cup tie against Cardiff Blues Premiership Select at Sardis Road.

Chapman joined the Bristol Academy in September following a successful trial period and appeared in two of the club’s pre-season matches scoring a try in the defeat at Clifton RFC by Premiership neighbours Bath.

The powerful winger started playing rugby at aged 12 in Devon at Topsham RFC, before studying at King’s College Taunton. He went on to represent England at U16s and U18s, as well as Exeter Chiefs Academy.

“I’m really pleased especially with the first half,” said Bristol Academy coach Mark Irish who had been in charge of preparations for the match “We made a few errors in the second half, but there is plenty for us to build on this week.

“Aaron Chapman played really well, but he wasn’t the only one, which is really pleasing for us moving forward. Our defensive performance was a step forward and we scored a good number of tries. We’re dead chuffed really.”

Bristol had eecured the bonus point in the opening forty minutes with Chapman wasting little time opening the scoring with his first try in under two minutes. Twenty minutes later centre Will Hurell crossed the whitewash.

Fly-half Billy Searle added the conversions and then added the extras to the visitors third try as Chapman scored under the posts. Wing Ryan Edwards intercepted a pass to out scrum half Andy Uren away on a 50 metre run to the line.

Searle’s conversion the bonus point try gave Bristol a comfortable 26-0 half time lead. But it wasn’t until the final 15 minutes of the game that the scoreboard was troubled again when replacement centre James Newey scored outside.

In the closing stages Bristol lock Joe Batley was sent to the sin-bin and the home side took advantage of the extras man. Dewey’s pass was intercepted by wing Dale Stuckey and ran the length of the field to score with replacement Ben Thomas converting.

Cardiff Blues Premeirship Select scorers - try: Stuckey; con: Thomas

Cardiff Blues Premeirship Select: D Fish (L Rowlands 49), O Lane, H Millard, W Rees-Hole, D Stuckey, B Jones (B Thomas 59), D Blacker (J Raikes 69), C Phillips (L Crocker 69), E Lewis (I Jenkins 49), W Davis-King (R Carre 14-15, 67), S Moore, B Murphy, S Bennett, M Sieniawski (capt), H Barnes (O Davies 49)

Bristol scorers - tries: Chapman (2), Hurrell, Uren, Newey; cons: Searle (3)

Bristol: J Wallace, R Edwards, J Tovey (J Newey 40), W Hurrell, A Chapman, B Searle (C Sheedy 48), A Uren (R Cullen 48), J O’Connell (J Cosgrove 48), B Gompels (N Freeman 68), A Giltrow (T Gendall 48), J Batley, E Ehizode, J Dun, D Watchorn (J Capon 63) , N Fenton-Wells (capt) Bristol yellow card: Batley

Referee: J Erskine (IRFU)

Attendance: 1,285