Strong finish secures thrilling derby success for the Bears
Report on Bristol’s victory against Bath at Ashton Gate
BRISTOL Bears, secured a hard-earned victory over Bath in a nail-biting derby at Ashton Gate.
Having been blown away in their last two visits to Ashton Gate, Bath looked to be in control midway through the second half, but the Bears came from behind to win following a swing in momentum in the final quarter to secure their first win of the season at the third attempt.
For all of Bristol’s reputation for having a high-risk, flamboyant style, it was Bath who played the more enterprising rugby for most of a lively encounter.
In the end, a lack of discipline for Bath, and yellow cards for Tom Ellis and Tom Dunn, proved too costly for the away side, albeit conceded as a result of unrelenting pressure from the Bears, bayed on by a vocal and partisan home crowd.
Having squandered countless chances in their opening two defeats of the season, Bristol were in a more ruthless mood, needing to quiet the dissenting voices asking whether a crisis was brewing at last season’s table-toppers.
With Bath down to 13, Bristol who were the Premiership’s best side at exploiting having a man advantage last season - powered over the line for the winning score, with outstanding replacement hooker Jake Kerr doting down under a pile of bodies. For all their efforts, Bath left with a losing bonus point as a consolation prize.
Wales fly-half Callum Sheedy opened the scoring for Bristol but from there Bath piled the pressure on to the hosts, looking extremely dangerous when in possession of the ball as their new attacking style visibly takes bloom.
After an extensive period of pressure from Bath, they were rewarded for their patience when wing Will Muir slipped through the Bears defensive line, broke an attempted tackle from flanker Jake Heenan, and crossed for the first try of the game.
The home side hit back with a try when Steven Luatua crossed to mark his 50th Premiership appearance as captain. A brilliant dummy by the Bears skipper wrong-footed Bath wing Semesa Rokoduguni and the No 8 was able to race through the gap and finish with a swan dive.
There were plenty of chances for Bath during the first half, as they cut open the Bristol defence in the wide channels and with a series of clever kicks in behind.
Young Bath centre Max Ojomoh looked to have scored a superb try in the 33rd minute after a wonderful offload from Tom de Glanville, only for the effort to be disallowed for a knock-on during the build-up by fly-half Orlando Bailey.
Moments earlier, Bath captain Charlie Ewels had squandered a golden opportunity to build to his side’s score as he knocked on with the line in touching distance.
As the clock turned red for halftime, Bath took a gamble and turned down a shot for the posts and kicked to the corner. The gamble proved successful as Bailey got the ball away to Sam Underhill with a clever delayed pass, setting up the foundation for Rokoduguni to cross for a try in the corner and head in at half-time with a 15-8 lead.
Bristol built a huge wave of momentum following the break, creating plenty of chances in attack but Bath’s superiority at the lineout kept the Bears at bay.
With the line-out struggling to produce clean ball, even with Will
Capon being hooked off at halftime for Scotland international Kerr at hooker, Bristol were forced to go for the sticks rather a fivemetre line-out after Bath were penalised for not rolling away and Sheedy kicked his side to within four points.
Bath responded with the score of game as wing Muir crossed for his second try of the night. The former sevens star slid on his knees to gather an inventive hook-kick from Bailey over the Bristol defence, offloaded to Ojomoh, and then bounced back to his feet to take the pass back inside from his centre.
Bristol took a pragmatic approach to reel their derby rivals back in, eeking penalties out at scrums through the Kyle Sincklerinspired pack to allow Sheedy to
kick them into the red zone. In total, the visitors were on the wrong end of referee Ian Tempest’s referee 17 times in contrast to the Bears’ eight.
With 20 minutes remaining, Bristol were awarded a penalty try after a long period of pressure with flanker Ellis was sent to the bin for 10 minutes for collapsing the maul, following a great drive from the Bears forward pack.
Momentum swung in the hosts’ favour and they took complete control of the final quarter. There was another yellow card for Bath, this time for England hooker Dunn, who was also penalised for collapsing the maul just metres from his own tryline.
The Bears were now in full throttle and the pack, with the assistance of a couple of backs, powered over the try line for Kerr to touch down and a successful conversion for Sheedy saw Bristol lead 25-20.
Bath still had a chance for glory in the dying moments of the game with a last-gasp effort to cross the line following a strong driving maul, but the Bears were able to hold on and turn the ball over to secure victory.
Bristol Bears: Charles Piutau; Ioan Lloyd, Piers O’Conor, Sam Bedlow (Alapati Leiua, 77), Henry Purdy; Callum Sheedy, Harry Randall (Andy Uren, 61); Yann Thomas (Jake Woolmore, 70), Will Capon (Jake Kerr, 40) , Kyle Sinckler (Max Lahiff, 70), Ed Holmes, Joe Joyce (Dan Thomas, 56), Chris Vui, Jake Heenan, Steven Luatua (capt).
Fitz Harding,
Tom de Glanville; Semesa Rokoduguni (Anthony Watson, 55), Jonathan Joseph (Max Clark, 62), Max Ojomoh, Will Muir; Orlando Bailey, Ollie Fox (Max Green, 62); Beno Obano (Lewis Boyce, 62), Jacques du Toit (Tom Dunn, 53), Will Stuart D’Arcy Rae, 47), Josh McNally (Mike Williams, 47), Charlie Ewels (capt), Tom Ellis, Sam Underhill (Miles Reid, 55), Josh Baileys.