Bristol dig deep in the east
Bucuresti give Premiership leaders a scare
Guinness Premiership leaders Bristol were made to work hard to get the better of European minnows Bucuresti in Romania on Saturday in the Challenge Cup.
Scrum-half Brian O'Riordan scored a second-half brace of tries to spare Bristol's blushes in the 27-3 European Challenge Cup victory, and coach Richard Hill was left shaking his head afterwards.
"We were up for it, but we were sloppy," he said. "Bucuresti were strong and they make life hard for you. They are a strong, well organised side.
"We made quite a few changes from last week and we didn't click. We thought we could run the ball and score 12 fantastic tries without doing the hard work, but you can't do that at this level. We went away from our gameplan.
"I don't know if it was complacency – I honestly don't know what the reason was. We should have won by a much bigger margin today."
The Romanian side, beaten by Gloucester by 100 points last season, showed plenty of grit on their home turf, limiting Bristol to two first-half tries to inside centre Sam Cox and winger Marko Stanojevic.
Home fly-half Dan Dumbrava gave the small crowd some cheer with a penalty before O'Riordan moved his side clear with a clever try after Bucuresti backrower Alex Tudori was sin-binned for killing the ball.
O'Riordan completed his brace as the match entered its dying stages, and replacement full-back Luke Arscott grabbed his side's fifth try to finish the scoring.
Elsewhere, Worcester cruised to a 25-7 bonus-point victory over Italian side Viadana at Sixways.
Wales prop Chris Horsman crashed over for the crucial fourth try early in the second half, matching the first-half effort of fellow front-rower Lee Fortey, but Viadana's line remained intact for the final half an hour.
Italy winger Kaine Robertson scored the visitors' only try in the first half, and they showed enough to give the Warriors plenty to think about before the return match in Italy in round six.
French club Narbonne needed a late penalty by fly-half Christopher Ruiz to claim a 19-16 victory over GRAN Parma at the Sergio Lanfranchi stadium.
The teams had both scored tries in the first half, Narbonne through flanker Benjamin Beaux, and Parma through lock Gaston llanos.
Ruiz and Parma's Rima Wakarua shared six penalties, but it was the addition of a 58th-minute drop goal by Ruiz which made the difference.
Finally Clermont inflicted Albi's first home defeat of the season upon them, winning 30-21 at the Stade Municipale.
The teams scored three tries each, but Alex Peclier's boot was the difference, as he landed all his penalties where Albi's Cerith Rees failed.
Clermont scored tries through lock Pierre Vigoroux, and centres Raphael Chanal and Thomas Combezou. Albi's came from fly-half Rees, Tongan wing Fa'atonu Fili, and fullback John Stewart.
