Bristol Bears beat Exeter Chiefs 18-14 at Ashton Gate on Saturday in Round Three of the 2025/26 Gallagher PREMJoe Batley of Bristol Bears celebrates victory (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)

Bristol Bears boss Pat Lam hailed Saturday’s hard-fought 18-14 Gallagher PREM win over Exeter Chiefs as one of the best of his tenure at the club after the injury-devastated hosts overcame losing Scotland international Tom Jordan to a 20-minute red card.

Jordan was dismissed for a high challenge in the 30th minute and the hosts were further hit by failed HIA’s for three-quarters Josh Carrington and Jack Bates. However they still triumphed with tries from Bill Mata and Gabriel Oghre, while Sam Worsley kicked a penalty and a conversion, with Jordan adding a penalty.

Ben Hammersley and Henry Slade scored Exeter’s tries, with Slade adding the extras, but a couple of late disallowed scores will haunt director of rugby Rob Baxter when they review the defeat at Ashton Gate.

Reflecting on the win against the odds, Lam said: “I’ve been here a long time and seen a lot games, but that effort was almost the highlight of my time here.

“In context, that group only came together to train on Thursday when we had 15 back out with injury as they were all dropping like flies. We had two nine’s – one the bench and I certainly didn’t think we’d have all three on the field at the end.

“We had to improvise throughout and there was some real steel and guts out there as we had to play 30 minutes of that game with 14.”

Exeter made a poor start with Ethan Roots fumbling the kick-off and from the resulting scrum, his side were penalised as Jordan put the hosts in front.

Slade should have soon nullified this but his 35-metre penalty attempt sailed wide before the home side suffered a blow when their wing, a dazed Carrington, was led off after coming off second best in a collision with Immanuel Feyi-Waboso.

Bristol had the first try-scoring opportunity but could not take it as Bates failed to collect Jordan’s well-judged kick with the line beckoning. Jordan’s score was the only one of a well-contested first quarter, which had few thrills as neither side had any attacking flow to their game.

A couple of kicking errors from Jordan were not helping Bristol’s cause but after 24 minutes, they recorded the first try when skilful passing and off-loads created the space for Mata to run 30 metres down the right-hand touchline and score.

Exeter’s response was swift when clean breaks from Harvey Skinner and Hammersley were the catalyst for Slade to run in under the posts.

The hosts suffered two further setbacks when first Jordan was red carded for a high challenge on Chiefs number eight Ross Vintcent, who after treatment departed to fail an HIA before Hammersley dummied the returning Santi Grondina to score an excellent individual try. Slade converted and his side took a 14-8 lead into the break.

Scrum-half Oscar Lennon, recently signed from the MLR, was introduced to replace Jordan at the end of the stipulated 20-minute period and his first action was to try and secure a touchdown in the corner but two defenders held him up.

However, Bristol were not to be denied as they collected their second try when Oghre finished off a driving line-out with replacement Worsley knocking over the touchline conversion to give them a one-point lead going into the final quarter.

Another Bristol replacement Max Pepper was yellow carded for a deliberate knock-on which resulted in huge pressure being placed on the home side as they could not break out of their own 22.

Remarkably Pepper returned with no damage to the scoreboard and the home side were able to hang on for a brave, but slightly fortunate, victory after Chiefs twice had tries from driving mauls disallowed, once for having not followed referee Anthony Woodthorpe’s instructions to ‘use it’ after he judged the maul had twice faltered in its forward momentum, and then for a pod of forwards breaking away from a lineout too early.

The final act of the game saw Worsley succeed with a a long-range penalty to rub salt into Exeter’s wounds.

Bristol Bears: 15 Benjamin Elizalde, 14 Josh Carrington, 13 Jack Bates, 12 Benhard Janse van Rensburg, 11 Kalaveti Ravouvou, 10 Tom Jordan, 9 Kieran Marmion; 1 Ellis Genge, 2 Gabriel Oghre, 3 George Kloska, 4 Pedro Rubiolo, 5 Joe Batley, 6 Santiago Grondona, 7 Fitz Harding (c), 8 Viliame Mata

Replacements: 16 Harry Thacker, 17 Jake Woolmore, 18 Lovejoy Chawatama, 19 James Dun, 20 Joe Owen, 21 Oscar Lennon, 22 Sam Worsley, 23 Max Pepper

Exeter Chiefs: 15 Dan John, 14 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, 13 Henry Slade, 12 Ben Hammersley, 11 Paul Brown-Bampoe, 10 Harvey Skinner, 9 Stephen Varney; 1 Will Goodrick-Clarke, 2 Jack Yeandle, 3 Josh Iosefa-Scott, 4 Dafydd Jenkins (c), 5 Andrea Zambonin, 6 Ethan Roots, 7 Greg Fisilau, 8 Ross Vintcent

Replacements: 16 Julian Heaven, 17 Ethan Burger, 18 Bachuki Tchumbadze, 19 Rusi Tuima, 20 Lewis Pearson, 21 Kane James, 22 Charlie Chapman, 23 Nick Lilley

Referee: Anthony Woodthorpe