Bristol coach Richard Hill was unhappy with his side's first-half display during the 39-13 victory over Leeds Carnegie at the Memorial Stadium.
Bristol's first-half display fails to impress coach
Bristol coach Richard Hill was unhappy with his side's first-half display during the 39-13 victory over Leeds Carnegie at the Memorial Stadium.
Hill felt Bristol were flattered by their 13-3 half-time lead, but was more impressed by events after the break.
Neil Brew, Andrew Blowers and a double from David Lemi in the second-half ensured the hosts picked up a bonus-point victory.
Poor form
"We have not been playing well at all for five matches and we didn't play well in the first 40 minutes," said Hill.
"But thankfully we started to come somewhere near our form in the second half but it was still pretty frustrating to watch the first 40. We still didn't click as well as we should have done.
"There are signs there, at long last, that the players are coming out of this run of bad form.
"We scored some tries in the end but we probably butchered three or four as well, there is still a lot to work on.
"It would have been interesting if Leeds had kicked their first-half penalties because that would have put us under considerable pressure. Instead of having that tiny cushion it could have been 13-12 which it should have been.
"We were just that little bit lucky and it enabled us to relax a little at 13-3 and not feel so pressurised coming out for the second half."
Brisol fly-half Jason Strange's 12-point tally allowed him to set a new club scoring record, surpassing Mark Tainton's total of 637.
Hill added: "When Jason [Strange] puts the ball on the tee it normally goes over. He never gets flustered, nothing gets to him."
Emulate
Leeds are struggling with just one win this season but director of rugby Stuart Lancaster insists his newly-promoted side can still bridge the gap between National One and the Guinness Premiership in the way that Bristol did last season.
"Bristol played exceptionally well, when they had the opportunities they took them and as a consequence the scoreline reflected it," said Lancaster.
"We certainly didn't underestimate Bristol and the way they dealt with coming up to the Premiership from National One. If anything we would look to emulate them.
"We go into every game believing we could win. We need to get more consistency across the board and back up that performance against Worcester a week ago.
"We had fixed some aspects from that game but not others so it is a case of putting all the pieces of the jigsaw together."
