Bristol winger Brendon Daniel scored a brace of tries as the Shoguns kept alive their slim European Cup hopes with a gutsy eight-point victory over Montferrand at the Parc des Sports Marcel-Michelin yesterday.
Bristol must now beat Leinster next weekend and hope that will prove enough to progress to the quarter-finals as one of the two best runners-up.
They stunned the French side in the third minute yesterday when the pacey Daniel was given too much space out wide, and Argentinian outhalf Felipe Contepomi's conversion gave the visitors a 7-0 lead before many spectators had found their seats.
The ground was coated with a light dusting of snow, which did not help the handling, and it was not until the half-hour mark before the favourites hit back, but they hit back hard.
Montferrand drove into the Bristol 22, before centre Xavier Sadourny sent out a long, looping pass to Elvis Vermeulen who had spotted an overlap on the wing.
The big back-rower used his strength to score in the corner and Sebastien Viars slotted a superb conversion to level the scores.
Just before the break, home lock Lyonel Vaitanaki took advantage of his side's dominance up front and drove over the line after a series of forward phases.
Viars added the extras and almost from the kick-off he made a great break up the middle before linking with replacement lock Eric Lecomte, who galloped over for a try in the last play of the half.
Contepomi kept his side in the match with penalty goals at regular intervals, and Daniel cancelled out a Sadourny dropped goal with his second try in the 67th minute as the Shoguns took a shock lead.
Some nice build-up work from scrum-half Agustin Pichot and man of the match, lock Alex Brown, led to a break by former All Black centre Daryl Gibson, and he popped the ball to Daniel for the crucial score. Contepomi's conversion made it 23-22.
Viars missed an injury-time penalty attempt, and replacement fullback Jamie Williams confirmed the Shoguns' victory with an intercept try as Montferrand threw everything at the visitors.
Meanwhile, Newcastle chief Rob Andrew last night described the circumstances surrounding the postponement of his side's Parker Pen Challenge Cup quarter-final first leg against Saracens a "disgrace".
The match has been rescheduled for 7.30 p.m. tonight after the overnight failure of the undersoil heating at Vicarage Road made the pitch unplayable, but Andrew was far from happy.
The malfunction, which occurred at 2.30 a.m., was not discovered until after 8 a.m. when ground staff arrived but the Newcastle director of rugby was upset his club were not informed until more than four hours later.
"I'm just disappointed we have a professional game and professional players who arrived here at 1 p.m. to be informed the game might not be on.
"It is obvious that this pitch has never been playable today," he said.
