Lam ‘proud’ after Bears hold out in controversial fashion
Reports on Bristol’s Gallagher Premiership victory against Leicester at Welford Road
TEMPERS boiled over at a sun-drenched Welford Road on Saturday afternoon as Bristol secured a home semi-final in the play-offs in controversial fashion with a 26-23 win.
The game ended 10 minutes after regulation time with a significant post-match scuffle, which included some of the replacements off the bench, after Bristol’s Andy Uren stole the ball out the back of a Tigers’ five-metre scrum after the Bears, who were down to 14 men, had held out under unrelenting pressure from Leicester’s dominant scrum.
Moments earlier, the two directors of rugby, Bristol’s Pat Lam and Leicester’s Steve Borthwick, were engaged in a heated conversation inside the technical area, which included referee Ian Tempest, as debate raged over how the Bears should respond when replacement tighthead prop Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro was yellow-carded in the 83rd minute for repeated team infringements in the scrum and maul.
Former All Black John Afoa, who had been brought into the team as a late injury replacement for Kyle Sinckler, who failed a fitness test on his hamstring, had been brought off as a tactical change at half-time, having returned to play out of necessity a week ahead schedule, with Max Lahiff also injured.
The 37-year-old veteran sat watching the action half unfold in a great contest, improved by the passionate voices of the 6,400 Tigers fans back in the famous stadium for the first time in 460 days due to the Covid-19 pandemic, only to be told he needed to go back on.
Initially, Lam refused to send him on, saying there had been an administrative error and he should have been noted as an injury replacement at half-time. If he had been listed as injured, the Bears could have gone to uncontested scrums but would have had to go down to 13 men, sacrificing another player as ‘punishment,’ as per the rules of the game.
The truth regarding Afoa’s status seems somewhere in the middle in a grey zone, the fact is Afoa had 40 minutes of rugby in him and had already played that, and Lam understandably felt putting him back on the pitch cold was a risk to his health.
In the end the 36-cap New Zealand international took control of the situation and walked on to the pitch while the coaches argued, scrummed down opposite fired-up England international Ellie Genge, and held his own at the set-piece to allow Uren - one of club rugby’s best disruptors at the base of the scrum - to sneak in and steal the ball from under the nose of Richard Wigglesworth to ruin his 300th Premiership appearance.
Afoa’s decision to come on, with Lam having declared him injured moments earlier, led Borthwick to accuse his opposite number of “lying”.
All of this was happening with the game in the balance.
In the end, Bristol prevailed, coming away with a bonus-point win to set-up an Ashton Gate semifinal, with Harlequins their opponents.
Lam said: “I am really proud of the boys. There was a lot of feeling there at the end. John Afoa was due back next week after getting injured at Gloucester.
“Kyle Sinckler felt a twinge in a hamstring so we decided to bring him back early. Then Kyle had to withdraw so we decided to start Afoa but I was always going to bring
him off after 40 minutes. I thought he had been marked down as an injury replacement so there was confusion there.
“My concern was that he is nearly 40 and he sat there for the whole half. In the end he just said ‘B **** r it, I am going on.’ I was not happy but Jonny went and did the job.”
The Bears crossed the line twice through Semi Radradra and once each through Max Malins and Harry Randall, with a sparkling individual effort on his first start for the club since January following a long injury lay-off.
Leicester were first on the scoreboard when Johnny McPhillips kicked a straightforward penalty.
McPhillips’ penalty was the only score of an evenly-contested first quarter before Bears conjured up
the first try of the game. On their own 22, the visitors looked to be going nowhere but a neat offload from Malins sent Siale Piutau away on a 45-metre run before the centre’s long pass provided Radradra with an easy run-in.
McPhillips succeeded with another penalty but Bristol responded with their second try.
On halfway, Randall quickly took a short penalty before darting away to brush off some weak tackling and score. Callum Sheedy’s conversion gave Bristol a 14-6 interval lead.
After the restart, McPhillips kicked his third penalty but their impetus continued to be hindered by the loss of line-outs on their own throw.
Leicester brought on their South
African powerhouse Jasper Wiese in the back row and they immediately won a scrum penalty but McPhillips was off-target with a 45-metre kick. Tigers’ next replacement was scrum-half Wigglesworth, who became the first player to reach 300 appearances in the Premiership.
The hosts continued to dominate the second half and were rewarded with a try from Hanro Liebenberg, who was on the end of a scoring pass from McPhillips.
However, Bristol replied with a superb try when Sheedy’s welltimed pass sent Malins on an unopposed 60-metre run to the line.
Minutes later, Bears had another when Leicester lost possession in their own half for Radradra to score his second of the game.
Bristol lost Jake Kerr to the sinbin for dragging down a maul and Leicester capitalised when Montoya finished off a driving maul. But despite being placed under enormous pressure in the closing stages, Bristol just held on with 14 men. Leicester: Freddie Steward; Harry Potter (Nemani Nadolo, 9), Matias Moroni, Matt Scott, Kini Murimurivalu; Johnny McPhillips, Ben Youngs (Richard Wigglesworth, 55); Ellis Genge, Tom Youngs (capt) (Julian Montoya, 41), Dan Cole (Joe Heyes, 55), Harry Wells (Tomas Lavanini, 60), Cameron Henderson, George Martin, Tommy Reffell (Jasper Wiese, 50), Hanro Liebenberg. Bristol: Max Malins; Piers O’Conor (Capon, 72), Semi Radradra, Siale Piutau (Alapati Leiua, 75), Henry Purdy (Ioan lloyd, 58); Callum Sheedy (Afoa, 80), Harry Randall (Andy Uren, 64); Yann Thomas (Jake Woolmore, 58), Will Capon (Jake Kerr, 41), John Afoa (Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 41), Dave Attwood (Joe Joyce, 58), Chris Vui, Steven Luatua (capt), Dan Thomas, Nathan Hughes (Ben Earl, 41).