Hull: Our best yet

Bristol assistant coach Paul Hull reckoned that their performance against Llanelli was their best of the season so far.

Bristol assistant coach Paul Hull reckoned that, in spite of their flying start to this season's Guinness Premiership, the West Country's side's performance in their 18-11 EDF Energy Cup win against Llanelli was their best of the season so far. The home side ran in two first-half tries at the Memorial Ground - Lee Robinson and Andrew Blowers touching down to help hand Bristol a 15-3 lead at the interval. And despite Llanelli offering a more spirited display in the second half, it was too little too late from the Magners League side - their only try coming from Morgan Stoddart in the last minute. "We've had a bit of fun in training this past week but also preparing to win and the pre-match team talk was just about playing to win," said Hull, who was handed responsibility for the match by head coach Richard Hill. "In the first half they certainly did that, scoring two tries, and the boys had a lot of commitment and good attitude - this was probably the best we have played for a long time. "Second half, obviously we knew Phil Davies [Llanelli's director of rugby] would fire his players up, bringing six internationals off the bench - and we knew we would be up against it. "The attitude and commitment in defence was outstanding and we held on right to the bitter end to secure the win. "Obviously it was disappointing to concede a late try but we had been defending for 25 minutes at one stage. "I'm happy with the win and if you win all your games you'll go through to the next stage.

First appearances

Following the Rugby World Cup, Llanelli included three players making their first domestic appearances of the season in their starting line-up - with another five on the bench. Davies said: "We'll go back to work and look at it and we'll be better next time and hopefully make the right decisions. "We were well beaten. We didn't provide a platform at set-piece or contact area. We were very persistent. "We kept going and there was lots of effort, but we were not as smart as we have been or are capable of being. There are no complaints. "I was hoping it wouldn't be difficult to reintegrate the World Cup players, but I think we've done it sensibly. "We've given the boys a bit of time to get back into the whole thing. We feel we've trained reasonably well in the last few weeks and it's just disappointing."