Rotherham's relegation worries continued as fellow strugglers Bristol widened
the gap at the foot of the table.
Bristol led 16-6 at the interval, scoring the only try of the half just before
the break after fly-half Steven Vile had landed three penalties for the home
side.
The visitors responded through South African-born fly-half Luke Smith, on his
league debut having played in the two recent cup ties, kicking two penalties
after missing an early attempt.
Skipper Gareth Baber made the initial break from the base of a ruck before
looping round Vile to take the return pass. England lock Garath Archer took the
ball on before number eight Ben Sturnham picked-up the loose ball and galloped
to the line. Vile converted.
Shortly after the restart scrum-half Dave Scully kicked up from the back of a
scrum on the 22 to put skipper Mike Umaga through under the posts.
Smith added the simple conversion and then, with the wind at his back, landed
a penalty from two metres inside his own half to level the scores.
But Vile put Bristol back in front with two more penalties as poor discipline
crept into the Rotherham side. Umaga was lucky not to get at least a yellow card
from referee John Barnard after dipped his shoulder to block Baber's passage up
the touchline.
Going into the final 10 minutes of the game Baber picked up from the base of a
ruck, dummied before switching the other way to run round to score by the posts
with Vile adding the conversion.
Lock Chris Murphy scored the visitors second try at the end of normal time
from a driving maul after a line-out five metres from the line.
Smith missed the touchline conversion attempt but Vile landed his sixth
penalty to take him past 150 points in just 11 league outings to complete the
scoring.
Bristol (16) 32 Rotherham (6) 21
Bristol:
Tries: Sturnham, Baber.
Cons: Vile 2.
Pens: Vile 6.
Team: Best, Rees, Nabaro,
Davies, S. Brown, Vile, Baber,
Johnstone, McCarthy, Fullman, Archer, A. Brown, C. Short,
Vander, Sturnham.
Replacements: Crompton for Johnstone (60).
Not Used: Williams, Sheridan, Salter, Dewdney, Marsden, Reeves.
Rotherham:
Tries: Umaga, Murphy.
Cons: Smith.
Pens: Smith 3.
Team: Umaga, Simpson,
Hassan, Northey, Dawson, Smith,
Scully, Thorp, Garnett, Turner, Murphy, Kenworthy, Schmid,
Spence, Fea'unati.
Replacements: Harrison for Scully (73), Bunting for Thorp (70).
Not Used: Latham, Johnson, Parr, Cook, Dixon.
Att: 2,380
Ref: John Barnard (RFU).
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