We had luck of the Irish, says Hill

Richard Hill said his Bristol side were lucky to be in the game before going on to win 23-11 at London Irish in the Guinness Premiership.

The director of rugby said: "At 11-3 down we were hanging on. We had a man in the sin-bin and Irish were showing real pace in attack.

"Why we weren't 20 points down I don't know. We weren't controlling our ball, we were frenetic and not playing how we had planned.

"At half-time we said, 'just keep the composure, keep the ball closer and do not let them put pressure on us'."

David Lemi and Lee Robinson touched down in the second half to guide the visitors to a victory which leaves them second in the table.

A Brad Davies penalty five minutes from time gave Gloucester a 27-27 draw at Leicester.

A try from Dan Hipkiss and a hat-trick of penalties from Andy Goode gave the hosts a 16-9 lead at the break. Seru Rabeni added another touchdown after the restart, but 14 points from the boot of Willie Walker and tries from James Forrester and Anthony Allen allowed Davies to have the last word.

Leicester head coach Pat Howard said: "Our performance was particularly bad. We were naive, had some unlucky calls and made too many mistakes."

Trialist Michael Berne scored the only try at Donnybrook as Leinster clinched their first Magners League success by seeing off injury-hit Cardiff Blues 16-9.

Cardiff debutant Ben Blair landed three penalties, but their chances were hit when Gary Powell and Bradley Davies were sin-binned in the second half.