They are not going to be easy to beat here. Bristol’s second home match of their return to the Premiership did not throb with the intensity of their first, but on a relentlessly wet day they showed they could play with a panache to match the passion. Time and again, though, they spilt the slippery ball.
They might have won this by more. In the end, they benefited from Harlequins’ ill-discipline. Ian Madigan landed five penalties from five to take the game away from the visitors, who were shown three yellow cards.
“We conspired to do daft things,” said Paul Gustard, Quins’ head coach. “Discipline was a real handbrake for Harlequins last season and we’ve not been able to rectify that yet. We’re just going to have to find a way to get out of this rut. We’ve got a team with real talent, but we can’t flourish because we’ve got this thing that we do to ourselves.”
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Quins’ final yellow card was shown in the penultimate minute, when Paul Lasike hit Madigan late and without arms wrapped. Ben Tapuai went in the first half for a technical offence after another flowing Bristol move.
Joe Marler was shown the second yellow early in the second half. His could have been worse. All players are walking a tightrope these days on the discipline front, so the England prop can consider himself lucky not to have seen red.
Ten minutes into the second half, Ian Tempest was called upon to review the leading forearm Marler deployed to fend off the attentions of Andy Uren, who immediately reeled away clutching his head. It looked more deliberate – or at least unnatural – than the tackle of Will Spencer last Sunday that Tempest had deemed worthy of a red.
Maybe Tempest is weary of the colour. He certainly sounded relieved when the TMO advised that Marler’s elbow had struck Uren’s shoulder first, before riding up to his head, thus qualifying for a yellow. It looked mighty close on the big screen.
Bristol were unable to score tries during either full spell against 14, although Madigan, having kicked the penalty that went with Marler’s yellow, slotted two more while he was away, either side of Lang’s second of the match, to open on the hour the lead Bristol would hold to the end.
It felt a poor return for their dominance. Or at least for their fluency.
In the first half they carved Quins up out wide. Harry Thacker plays as much like a centre as the hooker he calls himself. He caused Quins most grief, but Bristol’s back three made hay, too, off some nice patterns woven in midfield by backs and forwards alike. If only the West Country drizzle had not been so persistent.
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Quins were grateful for it, but that discipline of theirs seems a deep-seated problem, their penalty count well into double figures, Marler accounting for four of them. Their set piece deteriorated as the game wore on, but started well and yielded an early try for Danny Care, who broke past Madigan off a driven lineout. A Lang penalty earned Quins a 10-0 lead.
Madigan pulled back three points, as Bristol played their way into it. On a drier day they might have crossed earlier than four minutes from the break, when Thacker scythed through for Piers O’Connor to score out wide.
Madigan took the conversion quickly, for no obvious reason, and missed, but after Bristol’s wingers carved Harlequins up again on the stroke of half-time, his penalty earned the home team a lead they would not relinquish. They look as if they mean to stay this time.