Rugby Bristol’s team ethos meant even missing men weren’t missed
BRISTOL Bears ended their season with the trophy they have been chasing since day one as Pat Lam’s men beat Toulon 32-19 at the Stade Maurice-David on Friday night.
The Bears got off to a stunning start with Harry Randall scoring within 15 seconds. A 61st-minute try from Max Malins, as well as 22 points from the boot of fly half Callum Sheedy, secured the trophy.
Bryce Heem crossed the whitewash for Toulon, while the impressive Louis Carbonel kicked 14 points, but despite taking the lead going into the break, the French side were second best for much of the encounter.
Bristol Bears reporter John Evely pulls some of the key points out from a highly memorable weekend for the new Challenge Cup champions.
BRISTOL BEARS’ MISSING MEN
THE Bears have got a reputation as Britain’s answer to the ‘Galacticos,’ with ironically Toulon the original rugby club to be coined with that label thanks to the spending of former Billionaire owner Mourad Boudjellal, who brought some of the biggest names in the game to the south of France, including England star Jonny Wilkinson.
Bristol, of course, have their own billionaire owner in Steve Lansdown, who has generously supported the club to allow Pat Lam to spend up to the salary cap and attack a new generation of stars.
But for all the talk of the big names at the club, Friday night’s triumph was all the more impres
sive for the players who weren’t there.
Former New Zealand international and Bears captain Steven Luatua was back in Bristol supporting his partner Olivia as she gave birth to their daughter less than an hour before kick-off.
Remarkably, club owner Lansdown had his private jet gassed up and waiting on the runway in Bristol to fly-out the Bears’ talismanic back-rower had baby Luatua arrived earlier in the day but it was not to be.
Meanwhile, former All Black fullback Charles Piutau was brought to the club to be the difference in big knockout games like the Challenge Cup final, so it was all the more disappointing to see him sidelined with his troublesome Achilles injury.
With England international No 8 Nathan Hughes (ribs) and regular starting scrum-half Andy Uren (foot) added to the injury list following from the defeat to Wasps a week earlier, the challenge in front of the Bears looked a daunting one.
But Max Malins, Ben Earl and Harry Randall, who started in the respective places of the three missing men, were all in contention for the man-of-the-match award at the end of the night in Aix-enProvence, as they displayed the strength in depth Lam has been developing at the club in his three years in charge.
Even Fijian superstar centre Semi Radradra and Samoan international captain Chris Vui departing mid-game with injuries did not derail the Bears on their track to European glory.
TOULON BATTERED
WINNING a European final by 13 points is a comfortable margin, as the Bears dominated play for much of the Challenge Cup final, but let’s not forget Bristol bombed at least two tries in the first half, with questionable decisions from the team of officials at the heart of both.
In the 16th minute, the Bears were over the line with their potent catch-and-drive line-out causing the damage, with some added extra help from backs Radradra and Randall.
Unfortunately, hooker Harry Thacker failed to ground the ball properly at the bottom of the maul as they crashed over the line and referee Andrew Brace scrubbed the score off for a knock-on. Thacker certainly dropped the ball as he went to touch it down but whether it ever went forward is highly questionable.
Then, in the 27th minute, Joe Joyce had what would have been the best try of his career scrubbed off for a borderline forward scoring pass from Radradra. It took the officials six looks at the play before TMO Brian MacNeice, probably correctly, ruled the pass forward. However, they all failed to spot the potential red card shoulder to the face of Radradra from Duncan Paia’aua as the Fijian made the pass.
Journalist Matthew Syed’s excellent book ‘ Black Box Thinking’ discusses the psychology of failing to see the big picture in high-pressure situations, with experts in their field narrowing in on precise details and missing the bigger issue. On reflection, the failure to even look at the tackle from Paia’aua should add to that canon of mistakes.
It was a pity, because the score would have been a contender for the Bears’ try of the season, but in the end it didn’t matter.
SEMI THE REAL EUROPEAN PLAYER OF THE YEAR
EXETER Chiefs No 8 Sam Simmonds was named the EPCR European Player of the Year after a try in the final helped his side beat Racing 92 31-27 to lift the Heineken Champions Cup for the first time.
Simmonds also became the tournament’s top try scorer in 2019-20 in the process with his eighth of the competition.
Radradra’s inclusion on the fiveman shortlist for the award was achievement enough, as a player from the second-tier Challenge Cup has never won the Anthony Foley Memorial Trophy before.
Simmonds also beat Racing 92 duo Finn Russell and Virimi Vakatawa, and Exeter team-mate Stuart Hogg, to the individual honour, but few would disagree Radradra is the best player in Europe, if not the world, at the moment.
The Bears centre terrified the Toulon defence from the first seconds of the game as he had two carries and touches as Bristol went end-to-end to score the fastest try in the history of European cup finals, with Randall finishing the move.
Radradra finished with 59 metres from 11 carries after coming off with an injury on the hour-mark.
The summer signing has simply taken Bristol to another level since arriving at the club.