PAUL Hull has backed his Bristol players to learn from their mistakes after they suffered an agonising last-minute home defeat to Rotherham on the opening day of the Championship season.

The match ended in controversial and confusing circumstances as Bristol finished with 12 men on the field – compared with Rotherham's 15 – thanks to a combination of Mariano Sambucetti's sin-binning and front-row injuries, which forced uncontested scrums.

Bristol had led 24-19 as the last of 16 minutes of second-half stoppage-time began – but Rotherham's numerical advantage told as the hosts battered their way over for a last-gasp try, which was converted by Juan Pablo Socino for a 26-24 victory.

And while the match appeared to reach a farcical conclusion – with play held up for four minutes while the referee and his fellow officials sought clarification of the laws – Bristol head coach Hull was more disappointed by his side's failure to take their opportunities.

"We had talked in the team meeting about not conceding late tries – and you won't get any later than that," said Hull.

"We're very disappointed and we had opportunities to score a few times – especially in the second half when we opened them up. The patterns were there, the space was being created, but we just didn't finish it off with that pass.

"We have to look at that – because if we had taken our chances we wouldn't have been in that situation towards the end. But it's a young side, a new side, and we'll learn from that.

"You're always going to put yourself in that position if you don't push on and take the opportunities presented to you. In the second half there were two clear chances – including a two-on-one – and we threw the ball to touch. Those are the opportunities you have to learn to finish – and we will do."

The closing stages of a keenly-contested match appeared to descend into farce when Bristol, already down to 14 men after Sambucetti saw yellow, lost prop Mark Irish with a wrist injury. Irish was only back on the field as a replacement for the injured Wayne Thompson, so Bristol opted for uncontested scrums.

Under a rarely-used law, which was introduced last year, any team withdrawing a player for the purpose of going to uncontested scrums must also take off another player – so Dan Norton exited the field to leave Bristol three men down.

"If you go to uncontested then you have to take someone else off, so it stops that sort of playing of the rules and laws," explained Hull.

"Having being pinged with Sambucetti as well, we were hit again when it went to uncontested scrums – and I think that's what the confusion was about while the officials and the fourth official were clarifying the rules.

"(Hooker) Ollie Hayes could have gone back on, but tactically we were already down by a few people in the scrum and they had a pretty good scrum. So we decided to take Dan Norton off and have a few more numbers around the breakdown to defend the pick-and-go."

In addition to the injuries for Irish and Thompson, Bristol have a concern over Dan Montagu, who suffered a neck problem.