BEARING THEIR TEETH

Bristol insist you ain’t seen nothing yet after comeback victory over Quins

BRISTOL lock Dave Attwood insists the Bears have more in the locker after battling back for victory at Harlequins.

The win puts Pat Lam’s men bang in the Premiership mix five points behind leaders Exeter – but they did it the hard way at The Stoop.

Director of rugby Lam was forced to read the riot act to his team at half- time on Saturday when they trailed 9-5 and was rewarded with three second-half tries that clinched the bonus point.

Attwood (right) said: “We have never had a result like that here. Bonus point wins on the road in the Premiership are tough at any time of year so we are really pleased to come away with the result.

“The performance was quite lacking, certainly in the first half it was really poor with a lot of individual mistakes and a lack of unity. We all felt we were not quite all pushing in the same direction but we were much better in the second half.”

Bristol would have been in more trouble if Quins prop Wilco Louw had been awarded a try just before the break.

Then Lam delivered his rocket, captain Steven Luatua, scrum-half Harry Randall and replacement Niyi Adeolokun all scored, with Adeolokun ( main pic) skinning Mike Brown for his try. Lam said:

“Fair play to the boys, they were more like the Bears in the second half and we came home strong.”

Qu ins head of rugby Paul Gustard admitted: “We missed a big chance.

“We should have had a try before half time which would have made it

16-0 then they go up our end and make it

9- 5. Our try looked good to me – that was a big turning point.” Flyhalf Marcus Smith scored all of Quins points including an 80th minute consolation. No .8 S am Simmonds scored twice as EXETER beat GLOUCESTER 28-20 – after reporting a clean bill of health following another round of Covid testing. Last week Exeter had their Champions Cup game against Toulouse cancelled following an outbreak at the club. Director of rugby Rob Baxter said: “I wasn’t until 11.30pm that I was able to phone chairman Tony Rowe with news the latest tests had come back negative and we could stage the game with confidence.”

At Franklin’s Gardens, NORTHAMPTON ended a run of 13 defeats on the bounce as they beat WORCESTER 29-10.

Wales fly-half Dan Biggar broke the back of the game with his side’s third try but was yellow-carded for killing the ball in the second half.

Director of rugby Chris Boyd said: “I’ve been incredibly proud of the way the boys have stuck together. We’ve started coming back to find the light but one swallow doesn’t make a summer so we’ve got to find a way to back that up.”

Worcester missed a couple of clear scoring chances and director of rugby Alan Solomons moaned: “The score did not reflect the game at all.”