After the disappointing exit from the European Challenge Cup the only real goal left for now is to secure a berth in next year’s Champions Cup. However, as both Leicester and Clermont had demonstrated in the previous two games, having a power pack is essential if you want to go deep in any competition and sadly Friday night against Sale Sharks proved that if you lose the physical battle then it is extremely hard to progress.
There were few positives to take away from the game apart from to admire the dominance of the Sale tackling and in particular the performance of the Curry twins who were mainly responsible for the Bears having very little go-forward and, given there was barely a papadom between them, it was apt that they were awarded joint players’ of the match.
Bristol huffed and puffed but found no way of taking the wind out of the visitors’ sails and it was somewhat ironic that the one Bear who did manage to make some serious metres was the supporter in fancy dress who went coast to coast from the Dolman to the Lansdown without any meaningful intervention from the stewards. Their lacklustre attempts at stopping him mirrored pretty much what was happening on the pitch.
The fixture was also billed as ‘Go Green for Ashton Gate’, but the only real recycling on offer was from the Sale pack and the introduction of the biodegradable ‘self-destruct’ plastic cups simply served to to remind us of where Bristol’s season appears to be heading.
It seemed bizarre that our strategy seemed to revolve around trying to beat them at their own game rather than playing to our own strengths and hunt for space out wide. Yes, it was a bit wet but constantly box-kicking or sending poor old Magnus Bradbury into ferocious contact was akin to forcing WWI infantry over the top and into a hail of machine gun fire.
Sale simply picked us off with metronomic kicking from George Ford and three opportunistic tries from weary missed tackles. It was brutal, efficient and effective but as a spectacle for the home fans it was woeful and not ideal at a time when many are weighing up whether to renew season tickets or not for next season.
To coin a phrase, "we go again" but we need to see some improvement in the last two games to finish on a high.
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