GKIPA Championship 

London Scottish 15 Bristol 55

By John Harding

WORRIES that Bristol supporters may have had going into this game after head coach Pat Lam had made eleven changes from the side which beat Ealing Trailfinders were quickly dispelled at the Richmond Athletic Ground.

Bristol ran in nine tries, six of them in the first half, to secure another bonus point victory over London Scottish which maintains their 13-point advantage at the top of the GKIPA Championship table.

Second-placed Ealing Trailfinders had won 32-24 over Jersey Reds on Friday evening at State Santander International when they ran in tries from James Gibbons, Will Harries, James Cordy-Redden and Luke Carter.

Samoan international David Lemi was one of those recalled for the visitors and he showed his pace as he ran in two tries as did Australian international Luke Morahan in the opening 27 minutes for the try-scoring bonus point.

Lam had insisted that preparation for the game was important and the start was equally important because the last time they were at the Athletic Ground, when they faced Richmond, it took his side until half time to get into the game.

“The guys that came into the group, and under the leadership of Jordan Crane, put in a really good effort in training and they transferred that into the performance on the field,” said Lam after Bristol had taken their 14th bonus point from 16 games.

“We were a bit shaky at the end not controlling the ball which meant we spent twenty minutes defending. All in all, it was a good performance when you consider how many changes we made from last week.

“You always run the risk of injury if you can’t control the game - they had nothing to lose and went for it - and the game got loose because we were making errors. There was some real physicality from the forwards and the scrum and lineout went really well.”

One big worry was that both hookers - Nick Fenton-Wells and his replacement Jason Harris-Wright - had to come off and prop James Lay, on a two-month loan from the Bay of Plenty, had to take over in the middle of the front row.

But there was still time for the visitors to stretch their lead before half-time with tries from captain Tusi Pisi and back rower Jack Lam with fly-half Callum Sheedy adding four conversions with the hosts’ only reply being a Jacob Atkins penalty.

Bristol didn’t increase their account until ten minutes after the restart when Harris-Wright went over the whitewash. With just five minutes remaining replacement Craig Holland intercepted a pass from centre Jack Tovey and raced 70 metres to score for the Exiles.

The visitors hit back with a try from wing Alapati Leiua only for Ross Neal to roll off a tackle to run in under the posts for the host's second try, converted by Holland, before lock Joe Latta went over for Bristol’s final try, converted by Ian Madigan.

Bristol’s next game is not until Sunday, March 4 when Jersey Reds visit Ashton Gate, kick-off 2 pm, when the hosts will be looking to maintain their unbeaten run having won 36-17 when the sides met at State Santander International in October.

London Scottish scorers - tries: C Holland, R Neal; con: C Holland; pen: J Atkins

Bristol scorers - tries: D Lemi (2), L Morahan (2), T Pisi, J Lam, N Harris-Wright, A Leiua, J Latta; cons: C Sheedy (4), I Madigan.

London Scottish: C Ingall (C Holland 66), M Williams, R Neal, B Mosses, J Luca Smith, J Atkins (E Hoadley 66), A Walker, D Appiah (B Onyeama Christie 40), I Miller (captain, D George 62)), P Cringle (E McQuillan 62), E Milne (L Jones 51), O Curry, M Manley, C Walker (M Eliet 51), J Atkinson

Bristol: L Morahan (R Williams 77), A Leiua, J Tovey, T Pisi (I Madigan 61), D Lemi (J Williams 51), C Sheedy, A Uren, S Tonga’uiha (J O’Connell 51), N Fenton-Wells (Harris-Wright 40-67, S Tonga’uiha 68)), G Cortes (Lay 40), J Joyce, J Latta, S Luatua, J Lam, J Crane (captain, S Jeffries 58) 

Referee: K Dickson

Att: 1,683