Nottingham 16 - 22 Bristol

Nottingham may have got a bonus point from this game against the league leaders but there was a feeling in both camps afterwards that they deserved more.

Bristol's finishing in the second half though was the more clinical, and earned them the points, but it could have been different had an attempted interception from the Green and Whites in the closing minutes gone to hand.

In a game that saw too much aimless kicking from both sides the visitors never fully got into their stride, and were grateful in the end that a poor kick from Nottingham set them up with what proved to be the winning score.

A good kick from Adrian Jarvis brought Bristol a close range lineout, but Nottingham stole the ball and cleared the immediate danger.

But they were pegged back in the early minutes and would surely have fallen behind but for a knock on from Luke Arscott when he was put clear.

The first try of the day soon followed though as Jarvis sent Sam Giddens in alongside the posts, and then put over the conversion to make it 7-nil to Bristol.

They increased that lead with a good forward drive to win a penalty for Jarvis to make it 10-nil, but a counter attack from Nottingham brought a penalty only for Greig Tonks' long range effort to sail just wide.

An excellent drive from the pack then took them up to the Bristol line but they knocked on just as it seemed they must score.

From the resulting scrum though Dan White intercepted a pass to dive over with David Jackson converting to make it 7-10.

Bristol began to assert themselves again and when Nic Rouse was sin-binned they stepped up the pressure.

The Nottingham defence though performed heroically to keep their line intact to go in at half time trailing by just three points.

Minutes after the restart Bristol No 8 James Phillips broke from the base of a five metre scrum to crash over, with Jarvis making it 7-17 with the conversion.

The Green and Whites hit back though, a Jacko penalty making it 10-17 before a second yellow card, this time for Phil Eggleshaw, again left them short handed.

The decisive score came after yet another spell of ping-pong, and it was Bristol back row man Redford Pennycook who found enough of a gap to squeeze over in the left hand corner for an unconverted try.

Jacko slotted over another penalty before finally having to leave the field with a knee injury sustained in the opening minutes, and then came that knock on that could have set up an interesting finale.

A late penalty from Tonks gave Nottingham the bonus point that was the least they deserved.

Nottingham: Jackson (Blake); Cobden, Streather, Eggleshaw, Savage; Tonks, White; Parr (Fowkes), Sammons, Du Plessis (Buxton), Raven (Nimmo), Rouse, Hammond, Sherriff, Baird (Marshall).

Try: White. Conv: Jackson (2). Pens: Jackson (2),Tonks.