Crompton was one of two Bristol forwards sent to the sin bin

Bristol will stick with the experiment of blooding inexperienced players in the British and Irish Cup when they face Munster at home on Sunday.

Bristol went down 37-23 to a full-strength Nottingham in their opening game, but academy coach Matt Salter was impressed by the squad's efforts.

"What we asked for is that they can show they can compete at this level," Salter told BBC Radio Bristol.

"If you ask for that and they give it you can't criticise it."

Bristol gave debuts to forwards Tim Brockett and Gavin Curry from local side Dings Crusaders.

And they started with Mitch Eadie, who is still at college in Filton, and Dean Taylor-Menzies from National League Two South side Clifton on the bench where they were joined by fit-again scrum-half Robbie Shaw.

Bristol enjoyed a dream start racing into a 13-3 lead with Nicky Little slotting eight points with the boot and Jack Gadd touching down.

But they were pegged back at the Memorial Stadium with second-half yellow cards to former England prop Darren Crompton and flanker Jonathon Brandling-Harris hitting the hosts hard.

The decision making and structure let us down and we just needed to be a little bit more disciplined, but all in all it was great to see the young lads and a lot of them will be involved next week Matt Salter

"There was a youthful experience mismatched against their lumpy forwards and we picked them off well at the start and from that point of view there are major positives to take from the game," reflected Salter.

"They came back with a power game in the second half and the area I thought we might struggle in let us down, that is the game management and ability to get and keep field position.

"With a young side put together within a week, towards the end of that second half it was difficult to win set-piece ball in a prominent field position.

"But all credit to them. We had two sessions this week. There are guys from school, from Dings and Clifton and they came together against a strong Nottingham side and for large periods of the game it was very close.

"The decision making and structure let us down and we just needed to be a little bit more disciplined, but all in all it was great to see the young lads and a lot of them will be involved next week. These boys will relish it."

Jack Tovey, who started at full-back, crossed for a second-half try against a Nottingham side who scored five tries of their own.

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