Schmid try signals the downfall of Bristol

Bristol 19 Rotherham 24

Malcolm Pearce, a cool £9m into his stewardship of the Bristol club, spent last week pleading with the local business community for hand-outs. "We need £1m from somewhere if we're going to make it to the end of the season," he said. While his grand old club will probably find its way to June – finances are seriously tight at the Memorial Ground, but Bristol have been in worse spots than this – there is no guarantee that Pearce's sanity will survive that long. Just at the moment, he must be wondering why the hell he put his hand in his pocket in the first place.

Talking of pockets, Rotherham have had an interesting time themselves since the first whisperings of the Premiership slush fund scandal began circulating around the rugby community. Some sides would have been inhibited by allegations of buy-off arrangements and the setting up of an independent inquiry under the chairmanship of a high-powered QC. Not this lot. If anything, the poison of the last fortnight raised their collective dander.

The National Division One leaders and promotion favourites, now unbeaten for a calendar year, did not play a lavish amount of rugby at the Memorial Ground yesterday, but what little they did play, they played in the right places. They scored three tries, two off first-phase possession in the Bristol 22. "We figured we might get three chances, maybe five if we were lucky, to put tries on the board, and that we would have to take them," said Mike Schmid, the magnificent Canadian No8. "Whenever we set foot in the Bristol 22, we had to come away with points. We knew that, and we did it."

Schmid claimed the first himself early in the second quarter, dummying off the back of a solid set-piece and teaching young Chris Morgan, the Bristol blind-side flanker, a thing or two about rugby as played by the grown-ups. The second, six minutes before the break, fell to Matthew Oliver, who reaped the rewards of some clever midfield jiggery-pokery involving Ramiro Pez and Mike Umaga. When Michael Wood charged down Shane Drahm's touch-finder 10 minutes after the break, Rotherham were 21-9 to the good and dreaming of a quiet celebratory pint, followed by 15 noisy ones.

Bristol worked their way back into the contest late on, and even managed to concoct a try for Andrew Higgins down the left. But Higgins, a half-time addition to the mix, was not much of an asset, despite his direct running at inside centre. He handed Rotherham three important points by clattering Jon Benson with a gormless late tackle before taking a swing at Oliver – a sin punished by the reversal of a penalty that Drahm would probably have kicked. Then, deep in injury time, he went Fred Astaire-ing into an attacking ruck, boots flying in all directions, and was packed off to the sin-bin. He could not have complained had Tony Spreadbury opted for red rather than yellow.

If that was the final indignity for Bristol, they had become familiar with such suffering in the preceding 80 minutes. Compromised by a number of minor injuries, they started the game with only five first-team regulars. Within nine minutes, Ben Sturnham was off the field with a mangled knee – "He's done both ligaments and his season is over, the poor bugger," confirmed Peter Thorburn, the coach – and his departure forced the home side into a radical re-shaping of their scrum.

Andrew Sheridan, the one Bristol player to catch the eye in a wholly positive manner, moved from loose head to lock, with Emiliano Bergamaschi joining the front row. Bergamaschi knows infinitely more about propping than Sheridan, but he did not even begin to work out Colin Noon, whose destructive scrummaging forced the Premiership side to play on the back foot. "We always intended to scrum as an eight and spoil their ball," said Schmid. Simple stuff, but mightily effective.

Last Friday, when he was painting a bleak picture of Bristol's financial instability, Pearce admitted he had no idea what side Thorburn was planning to put on the field. "All I know is that this cup tie is important to our season," he said.

On yesterday's evidence, Pearce's idea of an important fixture is very different to Thorburn's: accomplished as they are, Rotherham would not have beaten a team with, say, nine senior players rather than five. The next meeting between the two men should be well worth eavesdropping.

"I have no regrets about my selection," Thorburn insisted before heading off to conduct the postmortem, adding with a slab of irony: "A merry Christmas to you all."

If Pearce materialises in the New Zealander's bedroom tomorrow night, done up as the ghost of Christmas future, he may revise his opinion.

Bristol: Try Higgins; Conversion Drahm; Penalties Drahm 4. Rotherham: Tries Schmid, Oliver, Wood; Conversions Pez 3; Penalty Pez.

Bristol: L Best; B Daniel, M Shaw, M Carrington (A Higgins, h-t), D Rees; S Drahm, P Richards; A Sheridan, S Nelson, J White, S Morgan, B Sturnham (E Bergamaschi, 9), C Morgan, R Oakley, R Beattie (capt, M Styles, 63).

Rotherham: J Benson; S Dixon (J Craig, 55), M Oliver, M Umaga, M Wood; R Pez, J Rauluni; N Lloyd, C Johnson (capt), C Noon (S Bunting, 67), D Cook, G Kenworthy, L Greeff, N Spence, M Schmid.

Referee: A Spreadbury (Somerset).

Results, Digest, page 9