Bristol claim record away win at Leicester

Gallagher Premiership

Leicester Tigers (12) 24

Tries: Hassell-Collins 2, Steward, Bassett Cons: Pollard 2

Bristol Bears (40) 54

Tries: Oghre 2, Ravouvou 2, Mata, Lane, Ibitoye, Janse van Rensburg Cons: MacGinty 3, Worsley 4

Bristol Bears demolished Leicester Tigers at Mattioli Woods Welford Road as they earned a record-breaking 10th straight Premiership win on the road to keep pace at the top of the table.

Tigers winger Ollie Hassell-Collins and Bristol hooker Gabriel Oghre traded two tries apiece in a frenetic opening 20 minutes, which also saw Kalaveti Ravouvou cross for the visitors.

Further tries from Viliame Mata, Rich Lane and Gabriel Ibitoye had Bristol cruising with a 40-12 lead against Michael Cheika’s high-flying Tigers at the break.

Freddie Steward hit back early in the second half, but a Benhard Janse van Rensburg score and a second from Ravouvou saw the Tigers give up a record amount of points at home in a Premiership game, before Josh Bassett grabbed a late consolation.

Bristol, whose England full-back Max Malins suffered a season-ending Achilles injury during the week, were forced to make a late change as George Kloska started in the front row after Max Lahiff was ruled out.

Three of Tigers’ five players that extended their contracts during the week played an instrumental role in giving the hosts the ideal start.

Solomone Kata made the initial break, with the ball then shifted on to Steward who moved it out to Hassell-Collins to scamper in on the left edge.

The lead last only two minutes, with a slip from South Africa fly-half Pollard as he attempted to kick clear gifting the Bears possession high up the field.

Bristol did not waste the chance, with Oghre finishing under the posts after being put through by former Tigers favourite Ellis Genge.

AJ MacGinty landed his conversion to put Bristol ahead for the first time, and quickly went on to extend the advantage after Oghre went over for his second try in five minutes.

While Hassell-Collins managed to respond by grabbing a second of his own after a loose ball from MacGinty was mopped up by Tigers’ attack, Ravouvou strolled over at the other end in a game that swung from end-to-end in ceaseless attacking waves.

While the Bears lost influential fly-half MacGinty to a knee injury just before the half-hour mark, their attacking endeavour remained and Mata grabbed a bonus-point fourth try moments later, before Lane finished off a sensational counter attack that started on their own try line.

Tigers had Bristol pinned back on their own whitewash when they reclaimed possession, shifted it right and into the grasp of Ibitoye, who set Lane up before going on to touch down himself for Bristol’s sixth try of an astonishing first half.

It was a record-shattering first 40 minutes for both sides, as Bristol had never scored more points in the first half of a Premiership game on the road while Tigers had never conceded so many at home.

Steward pulled a try back soon after the restart, with Bristol’s Oghre sent to the sin-bin at the same time after repeated infringements by the visitors.

Janse van Rensburg deservedly got among Bristol’s scorers, and Ravouvou came up with a incredible long-distance solo try as Pat Lam’s irrepressible outfit passed the 50-point mark.

And yet, Leicester managed to end the game with a try-scoring bonus point as Bassett went over in front of a crowd that had already dwindled by that later stage.

Bears wanted to run Tigers ‘off their feet’ – reaction

Leicester director of rugby Michael Cheika told BBC Radio Leicester:

“We started off the game quite well but we were seen off in the transitions and weren’t able to get the dominance that we wanted to in the contests.

“Scrums weren’t really refereed that way, we weren’t effective at the maul so those contests were taken out of it.

“We went from periods where we were actually attacking OK, lose the ball and then not be able to handle those next ensuing phases of the transition which we knew was coming – it wasn’t a surprise – therefore they got away from us in the first half.

“When the turnovers occurred we didn’t manage that part of the game well at all.”

Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam told BBC Radio Bristol:

“I think for us to put 50 on Leicester at Welford Road, that’s huge, similar to the way we put 50 on Bath. That’s probably high up if you asked our supporters.

“The intention was to try and run them off their feet the first half and the boys did that.

“I said at half-time this is where we can switch off now, they’ll come back harder, they’re at home, full house. This is now 0-0, I want to see how we go into our defence. The best way to not defend as much is to keep attacking.

“We’re obviously disappointed that we conceded. But the try of Kalaveti Ravouvou is probably my favourite because we defended 28 phases, they put it into the corner and we defend another 12 – 40 phases the boys defended.

“We turned it over and went 90 metres and scored the other end, which sums up what we do in training.”

Leicester Tigers: Steward; Bassett, Wand, Kata, Hassell-Collins; Pollard, Youngs; Smith, Montoya, Heyes; Henderson, Martin, Liebenberg, Reffell, Cracknell

Replacements: Clare, Whitcombe, Hurd, Holloway, Ilione, Van Poortvliet, Shillcock, Woodward

Bristol Bears: Lane; Bates, Ravouvou, Janse Van Rensburg, Ibitoye; MacGinty, Randall; Genge, Oghre, Kloska; Dun, Owen, Luatua, Harding, Mata

Replacements: Thacker, Woolmore, Halliwell, Hodgson, B. Grondona, Marmion, Worsley, Elizalde

Sin-bin: Oghre (49 mins)

Referee: Hamish Smales