Rugby / Bristol Bears
Bears’ play-off hopes still alive after flattening Falcons
Bristol’s hopes of making this season’s Premiership play-offs remain very much intact.
It felt unfair at times on Sunday afternoon with Newcastle put to the sword in the sunshine as Bears ran out 85-14 winners at Ashton Gate after scoring 13 tries.
With three games to go, the Bears could still be heading to Twickenham and not many teams will be able to stop Pat Lam’s men if they compete in the way they did in this extraordinary game.
is needed now More than ever
The Bears were on the scoresheet in less than two minutes thanks to Siva Naulago, who found Harry Randall after beating a couple of opponents while breaking down the right wing well inside his own half, passing the ball to Randall who swerved one way and the other before putting in Naulago for the try.
James Dun crossed the line next from close range for the home side and Max Malins scored Bristol’s third after nine minutes after drifting through the Newcastle defence as if they weren’t there.
After soaking up attack after attack from the Bears, the visitors from the north east finally got out of the blocks thanks to a wildly ambitious cross-field pass from Kyle Sinckler – making his 50th start for the Bears – which was gleefully gobbled up by Radwan.
Randall was once again in the thick of things, catching Newcastle off-guard from a quick free-kick and passing to Magnus Bradbury whose stretch for the line was deemed a try by the TMO.
With the ball at the back of a ruck, James Willliams shouted to Randall and pointed in the direction of the run he wanted to take to beneath the posts. The srum-half understood the assignment and now with ball in hand, Williams did exactly what he predicted, taking Bristol to 30 points with 30 minutes gone.
On his 100th Premiership appearance, Knowle West’s finest Ellis Genge charged to the line making mincemeat of two Newcastle defenders who looked like they would rather have been anywhere but attempting to stop the England star.
The best try of the first half was finished by man of the match Benhard Janse van Rensburg on the left after having been started by Naulago on the right and passing through a multitude of hands along the way.
It was going to be very difficult for the second half to live up to a frenetic first half in which Bristol had scored almost 50 points.
But the second 40 minutes almost matched the first 40 for entertainment.
Randall soon added to Bristol’s total, and Steven Luatua and Gabriel Ibitoye both thought they had too before both ruled out for an earlier infringements.
Replacements Kieran Marmion and Jake Heenan then added their names to the scoresheet in between a Brett Connon interception for Newcastle.
After a scintillating break by try scorer Heenan, another try was scored by Virimi Vakatawa and the conversion expertly taken by van rensburg from the touchline.
To add to the record-breaking afternoon, van rensburg was one of three conversion takers, following AJ MacGinty’s successful six kicks and Williams’ three.
There was still time for Vakatawa to score his second to bring to an end one of the most extraordinary games of rugby seen at Ashton Gate for many years.
Main photo: JMP
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