BEARS TEAR GLOUCESTER TO SHREDS
FANS’ JOY AT GATE
IT was party time at Ashton Gate on Monday night as Bristol Bears tore Gloucester to shreds to win 39-7.
In truth, the scoreline should have been twice that as the top-ofthe-table hosts had eight tries disallowed or bombed for numerous offences. Just imagine if they had actually clicked?
In the end, Bristol ran in six tries to take one step closer to securing a home play-off for the first time at a buoyant Ashton Gate, as the 3,128 fans in the stadium for the first time in 435 days made the noise of 30,000 according to Callum Sheedy.
Despite the final scoreline, the Bears will come away from last night’s game disappointed having wasted countless chances to punish their West Country visitors further.
Bristol had six tries disallowed in the first half meaning the 13-7 scoreline in no way reflected the game at a bouncing Ashton Gate.
The game should have ended as a contest in the 15th minute when Gloucester lock Matias Alemanno was red-carded for a tip-tackle on Bristol captain Steven Luatua, as the Argentine lifted the former All Black who was then knocked off balance by Ed Slater and driven into the ground on his head.
A couple of minutes later and the brave Cherry and Whites, having been battered in the scrum, were down to 13 men with prop Val Rapava-Ruskin penalised for repeated team offences.
With a two-man advantage, the ball was worked through the hands and Charles Piutau offloaded to Sheedy, who gave a no-look outthe-back pass to Max Malins to crash over for his third try in two games.
Bristol then butchered countless scoring chances, with Charles Piutau the guiltiest of all as he sauntered over the line to allow Kyle Moyle to blindside him and hit the ball loose.
Given a glimpse of a chance, Gloucester, with nothing to lose gambled and Billy Twelvetrees cannoned a perfect kick from near the halfway right into the corner for a five-metre line following a penalty for offside.
The line-out was perfectly executed, Jordy Reid got the visitors over the gain-line with a huge carry into Sheedy, and then Twelvetrees arched a gorgeous miss-pass into the arms of Santiago Carreras, who
had the pace to beat Malins to the corner.
Twelvetrees’ stunning touchline conversion made it a one-score game.
In the second half, Bristol were far from clinical but the mighty Chris Vui dragged his side back into the contest, breaking down the blindside, dummying and passing inside for Charles Piutau to finish, making atone for the earlier error.
Ben Earl and Nathan Hughes then powered over from maul efforts, with Bristol going back to the granite strong foundations in their pack which have seen them dominate the league this season, leading the table since round six of the competition.
With the clock having gone past 80 minutes, Semi Radradra finished the job with a powerful drive from a disguised no-look pass from Sheedy, who closely beat Vui to the man-of-the-match award.
Bristol: C Piutau, Morahan, Radradra, S Piutau, Malins Sheedy, Uren, Y. Thomas, Kerr, Sinckler, Attwood, Vui, Luatua Earl, Hughes.
Reps: Capon, Woolmore, Afoa, Holmes, Heenan, Kessell Lloyd, Leiua.
Tries: Mains, C Piutau, Earl, Hughes, Radradra.
Cons: Sheedy (4).
Pens: Sheedy (2).
Gloucester: Moyle, Rees-Zammit, Kveseladze, Atkinson, Carreras Twelvetrees, Heinz, Rapava Ruskin, Singleton, Balmain, Slater Alemanno, Reid, Ludlow, Ackermann. Reps: Walker, Ford-Robinson, Stanley, B Morgan Clement, Varney, Evans, Thorley. Try: Carreras.
Con: Twelvetrees.
Referee: Craig Maxwell-Keyes.