Bears go rumbling on towards home semi
WHEN BRISTOL have won this season, they’ve won big, and they did so again at Kingston Park to take their unbeaten run in the Premiership to eight games – the best in the club’s history.
The Bears are now within a whisker of securing a home semi-final and could do so at Ashton Gate against champions Exeter on Friday night.
In truth, they made a slow start against Falcons, before motoring away with three tries in 12 minutes at the end of the first-half as the game broke-up.
Director of rugby Pat Lam admitted how vital it is to secure a home semifinal.
He said: “I’m pleased for the boys for the run we’re on, when you consider we’ve never named the same 23, and some of the big names like (Max) Malins, (Ben) Earl and (Siale) Piutau haven’t played 50 per cent of the games.
“It shows there is a good competition and that competition is key.
“Players like Chris Vui – coachable, skillful and understanding the system – are thriving because they know the patterns we want and that is what you saw today, even from deep sticking together. That’s the Bears way.”
Looking ahead, he added: “All the clubs want a home semi-final and we especially do to give the fans an opportunity to be there after so long. I’ve told the players this journey is a race to the top of the mountain.
“We know we’re at the top but we’ve not finished yet, if we don’t keep working we’ll get overtaken. That is our mindset so we’ve set goals and targets – then it’s game to game and minute to minute.
“We’re five bonus-point wins in a row from that work but now we’ve got the big challenge of Exeter, we beat them well down there but they won today and they’re the ones looking to
take the jump on us so it will be a great clash.”
With both side’s coming off the back of defeats in Europe, it was Newcastle who started the stronger, setting their stall out against a surprisingly sleepy Bears.
A George Wacokecoke turnover and a blitz attack down the touch line by Peterson and Vuna set the tone for the early engagements.
Falcons put in big hits on the league leaders and made their presence known. None more so than loosehead Adam Brocklebank who was sin-binned in the 11th minute for a late illegal shoulder barge on Callum Sheedy – who had to be replaced minutes later.
Despite being a player down, scrum-half Michael Young’s box-kick got Falcons near Bristol’s try line before he then intercepted a Ben Earl pass to dot down.
Flood extended the early lead after John Afoa was pinged for not rolling away – but then it was all Bristol.
A great wide pass by Vui to Jake Heenan got the ball rolling and the No.8’s onetwo with Earl took out defenders for the cocaptain to gallop over.
As replacement Ioan Lloyd started pulling the strings, the returning Malins, back from a quad strain, broke from deep, dummying both Toby Flood and Tom Penny with ease and in the blink of an eye Britol were ahead.
Just before half-time it was the turn of Luke Morahan weaving past Falcons’ half-backs before dotting down.
A training-ground linkup between hooker Will Capon and Earl saw the Saracens-loanee crash over for the bonus point score as Newcastle looked fatigued.
Malins’ rounded off the win, catching Brett Connon’s kick to sprint over before Falcons’ Kyle Cooper scored a defiant consolation. skillset wasn’t good enough compared to theirs.
“We’ve got a lot of young boys like George Wacokecoke and Ben Stevenson and with no relegation this is the perfect time to give them as much game time as we can.”
Double Bristol tryscorer Max Malins said: “To get 80 minutes under the belt and five points, I’m very happy.
“It is credit to our squad that we can make so many changes and win. We have some young players slotting in.
“I can’t wait for Exeter, it will give us an extra edge this week.”