Bristol finish home campaign in style with win over Chiefs
Nathan Russell and John Evely report on Bristol’s win against Exeter at Ashton Gate
EXETER Chiefs’ play-off dreams were left hanging by the thinnest of threads after suffering their first ever defeat at Ashton Gate on Friday night - and finally ended by results elsewhere the following day.
Bristol claimed victory thanks to tries from Charles Piutau (2), Callum Sheedy, Alapati Leiua - who scored on his final appearance at Ashton Gate before moving to France in the summer - Toby Fricker and Luke Morahan.
Along with Leuia, John Afoa and Dave Attwood were also making their final Ashton Gate appearances in Bristol Bears colours, and they got the perfect send-off before moving on to their new clubs.
Chiefs put up a good fight with tries from Santiago Grondona, Josh Hodge, James Kenny, Olly Woodburn and Dave Ewers making it a competitive contest but were second best for much of the game. After a slow opening quarter, in which neither side managed to stamp their authority on the other, the hosts broke through when Harry Randall showed his class and intelligence by utilising a tap-andgo to break clear and pass inside to Sheedy for an easy score.
Chiefs responded as Grondona’s short drive from the base of the ruck saw him overpower Chris Vui to level the scores.
Pat Lam’s men were next to get points on the board as the sides traded blows. After drives from Vui and Steven Luatua got Bears heading towards the right, Piutau found himself as the first receiver, opting to switch directions and use his quick feet to finish under the posts.
Exeter got the final try of the half, using fast hands to ship the ball to the right and outpace Bristol’s drift
defence, with Hodge the final receiver and scorer on the right.
Bristol were faster out the blocks following the interval as Piutau grabbed his second by finding a gap in the defensive line, with Sheedy’s pass putting it on a plate for him.
The Bears continued the march forward, as Sheedy broke before pulling off a blind inside flick to Leiua, who did well to finish past Joe Simmonds for a crowd-pleasing try in his final appearance at Ashton Gate.
Just as proceedings were firmly in Bristol’s control, they were reduced to 14 men as Jack Bates was yellow-carded after making connection with Jacques Vermeulen’s head in a tackle.
Chiefs were quick to take advantage, as Kenny hit a great line just to the left of the ruck to find a gap between tacklers to score from metres out.
Exeter drew level when Henry Slade popped a pass outside to Woodburn, who magnificently managed to reach for the try line despite a challenge. With seconds remaining on Bates’ sin-binning, Fricker crucially read Slade’s pass to intercept and sprint over from the halfway line for the score.
Silky backs play extended Bears’ lead, as a false line from Bates fooled the Exeter defensive line to allow Morahan to touch down in the corner from an arcing pass from Ioan Lloyd.
Exeter had the final say when Dave Ewers’ drive from short range brought the gap to seven points to secure a losing bonus point.
Lam, Bristol’s diretcor of rugby, said: “Tonight, we talked about enjoying this game and working hard and playing with no fear.
“If people look closely at what we have done, we have grown the framework of our game a lot. What we are lacking is just the technical detail across the board.
“We have got to get better and get our fundamentals right. That is an area we are going to be driving very hard in pre-season.”
Bristol Bears: Charles Piutau; Luke Morahan, Piers O’Conor (Jack Bates, 46), Alapati Leiua, Toby Fricker; Callum Sheedy (Ioan Lloyd, 58), Harry Randall (Andy Uren, 69); Jake Woolmore (Jono Benz-Salomon, 77), Harry Thacker (Bryan Byrne, 49), John Afoa (Jake Armstrong, 68), Dave Attwood (Fitz Harding, 53), Joe Joyce, Chris Vui, Sam Jeffries, Steven Luatua (DanThomas, 61).
Exeter Chiefs: Stuart Hogg; Olly Woodburn, Henry Slade, Ian Whitten, Josh Hodge (Tom Hendrickson, 43); Joe Simmonds, Sam Maunder; Alec Hepburn (James Kenny, 53), Jack Yeandle (Jack Innard, 53), Harry Williams (Patrick Schickerling, 53), Jonny Gray, Sam Skinner, Dave Ewers, Jannes Kirsten (Santiago Grondona, 25), Jacques Vermeulen (Dafydd Jenkins, 55).