Following a narrow 18-14 victory for Bristol Bears over Exeter Chiefs in the Prem on Saturday, here’s our five takeaways from the game at Ashton Gate.
The top line
An injury ravaged and out of sorts Bristol Bears came away with the four points as Exeter missed a huge opportunity to continue their solid start to the Prem season today.
Tries from Viliame Mata and Gabriel Oghre and a penalty each from Tom Jordan and Sam Worsley were added to by a late Worsley penalty that rubber stamped the result.
Exeter though will wonder how this one got away from them as tries from Henry Slade and Ben Hammersley, both converted, were all they could muster despite dominating.
Winning ugly
As mentioned, Bristol Bears are missing a heap of talent at this early stage of the season and were off the boil too in terms of their attacking swagger but somehow prevailed.
However, Bears boss Pat Lam was delighted with this result and it’s easy to see why as they all count and it’s important for a coach and team to celebrate these rugged results.
Exeter Chiefs were camped on the hosts’ line in the last quarter but could not turn pressure into points and that is credit to Bristol digging in as they secured this home win.
Exeter shocker
How they did not cross in that period of dominance is beggars belief as Exeter banged on the door and thought they had opened it and gone over on more than one occasion.
One such moment though was chalked off by the officials after two of Exeter’s forwards stepped out of a line-out before the throw and then rejoined as a maul was formed. Why they thought it was legal is questionable and because of its choreographed nature one has to presume it was from the training field which makes it even more baffling.
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It was a costly moment as the Bears would ultimately exit from their try-line and would subsequently see out the result thanks to Worsley’s late penalty goal from distance.
Tom Jordan relief
Bristol’s injury woes include AJ MacGinty being out with a ruptured Achilles and his absence has forced the Bears into shifting new signing Jordan into the number 10 role.
Unfortunately his day lasted just half-an-hour after the Scotland star made contact with the head of Ross Vintcent while attempting a tackle, resulting in a 20 minute red card.
Fortunately for the former Glasgow Warrior his new team-mates dug in and sealed the all important victory in his absence, which under the circumstances is a massive result.
Genge concern
The sight of Ellis Genge limping from the field of play will be a worry not only for Bristol Bears boss Lam but also England head coach Steve Borthwick ahead of the autumn.
It has been a positive comeback game for the forward after his break following the British & Irish Lions tour and he certainly looked revved up and eager to impress today.
Trailing 8-14 as the hour mark approached, Genge went for Josh Iosefa-Scott at scrum time, which earned his side a penalty that was kicked to the corner. From that resulting lineout five metres out the Bears crashed over for a Oghre try that was converted by Worsley. It was a vital moment that all came from the England loosehead prop.
However, he suffered an injury in contact on 65 minutes that ultimately brought his afternoon to a close and both Bristol and England will hope it’s not cause for concern.