RADRADRA’S BRISTOL BEARS
STAY IN PLAYOFF HUNT
Bristol Bears kept their Premiership play- off hopes alive with a convincing 40- 3 bonuspoint victory against Leicester.
Six tries against a hapless Tigers moved them level on points with fourth-placed Sale going into the final round of the regular season on Sunday.
Ioan Lloyd, Nathan Hughes and Bryan Byrne all crossed before the break with Dan Thomas securing the bonus point for Bears early in the second half. Fijian star Semi Radradra came in as an impact player.
Harry Thacker added a fifth before a penalty try for the sixth at the end. The result means only two points separate the four sides placed second to fifth in the Premiership with a match to play.
Fifth-placed Bristol will need to better the results of at least one of Bath, Wasps and Sale on Sunday to book their place in the semi-finals. “It’s job done in the sense of the five points,” said Bristol coach Pat Lam.
“A good outcome and there were some good performances here and there. But ultimately, I’m not completely satisfied in terms of we could’ve been a lot better.
“We talked about being ruthless in this game, at times we were, but a lot of times we weren’t.
“We had balls turned over and I think nine balls lost in contact and five dropped passes. You can’t control the tempo of the game when it’s stop-start and it’s us making those errors.
“There’s some room for improvement to take into Sunday. It’s about controlling our own performance then. We’ll take care of ourselves and then it’ll just be a case of wait and see if it’s good enough to reach the top four.”
Leicester director of rugby Geordan Murphy told BBC Radio Leicester: “At 7-3, the game was right where we wanted it 25 minutes in, but we gave a penalty away straight from the kick-off.
“They kicked to the corner and we found ourselves 14-3 down and against a side like Bristol, it’s a challenge and difficult to create anything.
“It’s was always going to be difficult to chase a team in these conditions and Bristol punished us every time we made a mistake.”