Bristol’s Euro stars move into semi-finals with 7-try show
BRISTOL BEARS VS DRAGONS, EUROPEAN CHALLENGE CUP QUARTER-FINAL Talking points from Bristol’s Challenge Cup win against the Dragons, by Sam Bytheway and John Evely
BRISTOL Bears marched into the semi-finals of the European Challenge Cup with an outstanding 56-17 victory over PRO14 side the Dragons on Friday.
Bristol played some of the best rugby they have produced since Pat Lam arrived at the club more than three years ago.
After a difficult start to the quarter-final, which saw the hosts go 10-0 down after a try from Ashton Hewitt, they exploded into life to run in seven tries, touching down through Ben Earl (2), Nathan Hughes, Semi Radradra, Chris Vui, Max Malins and Dan Thomas, while Callum Sheedy finished with 21 points from the boot. SENSATIONAL SEMI RADRADRA THE expectation surrounding Semi Radradra when Bristol announced they had signed the Fijian was huge. Perhaps akin to All Black great Dan Carter signing for a side in his pomp. Headlines everywhere read: ‘Bears sign best player in the world.’ The centre looked set up to fail. How could anyone meet those levels of expectations?
Remarkably, he has surpassed them by taking his game to a new level. At times Radradra plays rugby like he has cheat mode activated on a games console.
The superstar’s solo try against the Dragons was effortlessly outrageous and his best yet since joining Bristol.
Callum Sheedy broke the line and threw a gorgeous offload to the centre who took the ball 10 metres inside his own half and then hit the accelerator. His long, almost lazy, stride pulled him away from the orange shirts chasing behind into the open field with two men to beat. A big explosive step off his right foot beat the first defender and then the pace and power of the man was too much for the final covering defender.
The Fijian has been nominated for European Player of the Year, despite competing in the lower-tier Challenge Cup with first Bordeaux Begles and now Bristol but I would go one better, I can’t think of a better nominee for World Rugby Player of the Year, especially if he backs it up for his country in the new Eight Nations Cup this autumn.
BRISTOL’S ABILITY TO TRANSFORM GAMES IN BURSTS APART from Radradra’s solo brilliance, all of Bristol’s tries came in two periods of five minutes, which completely blew away the visitors.
The spell in the first half, which started with a Hughes try turned the game in favour of the Bears after a sloppy start, was inspired by Ben Earl, who managed to touch down a brace of tries within minutes of the other. All three of these tries followed a similar pattern, a strong line break to begin the move - in these cases from Luke Morahan, Radradra and Harry Thacker then some quick hands or an offload to find a final runner to finish the try. Obviously, this is describing the try at its basic level, with each of them having individual brilliance attached to them, but it shows that when the Bears click, they have the recipe to be are almost unstoppable.
The spell in the second half was slightly different with the Bears exploiting holes in the Dragons defence as the Welsh side tired. However, it shows the determination that Pat Lam has instilled in his side to attack to the final moments.
This determination was seen with the final try, with both Henry Purdy’s power to beat numerous tackles and Harry Randall’s quick
thinking to take a quick penalty and dart away before offloading to Thomas.
BEARS FOR INTERNATIONAL HONOURS
WITH Eddie Jones in attendance at Ashton Gate, as well as all the Welsh coaching staff and British and Irish Lions head coach Warren Gatland, plenty of the Bears line-up put their hand up for selection for the various teams with the extended autumn internationals fast approaching.
Eddie Jones must have struggled with who to keep his eye on, with so many of the Bears’ England-qualified players shining brightly.
England regular Kyle Sinckler was solid in a dominant scrum, but it was the non-regulars and uncapped players who may have given Jones a potential selection headache.
Harry Thacker has regularly been touted for an England call-up and the hooker’s performances recently have put in right in the frame. Thacker, offers something different to England’s current incumbents, as he showed on Friday, making a total of 82 metres in attack, including the break in the lead-up to Ben Earl’s second try.
The options Eddie Jones has at scrum-half are also vast with candidates such as Ben Spencer, Jack Maunder as well as Ben Youngs but Harry Randall put his name into the hat with another impressive performance, this time off the bench.
Both international coaching teams will have had an eye on Callum
Sheedy. The Cardiff-born Bears ten is not yet capped, and is eligible for England, Wales and Ireland. Sheedy was outstanding in attack against the Dragons who had internationals opposite him in the 10,12 and 13 shirts, but the Bristol man shone and was involved in a number of his side’s tries. The Bears 10 spent a week training with England last season before coming off the bench for just a couple of minutes in an uncapped match against the Barbarians but the Welsh-accented fly-half appears to have Welsh rugby in his DNA.
His fluid style of play harps back to a golden age of Welsh 10s who danced their way around heavy rugby fields like ethereal beings.
But the man who will have impressed both Eddie Jones and Warren Gatland the most is Ben Earl. Despite having three caps, all coming in this year’s Six Nations, the Saracens loanee is still a rookie in the England set-up.
Earl, who has strong competition in the back row in Bath’s Sam Underhill, Wasps’ Jack Willis and the Curry brothers from Sale Sharks, staked his claim for a regular starting berth with an outstanding performance.
The flanker was everywhere in both attack and defence, scoring two tries of his own and was involved heavily in two others. But what will have impressed Eddie Jones the most was his determination to still compete and win penalties in the ruck, even when his side was comfortably ahead in the final stages of the game.