Following Bristol Bears’ 40-14 win over Harlequins at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham, here are our five key takeaways from the PREM clash.
The top line
Bristol Bears spoiled Harlequins big party at ‘the Big Stoop’, with an emphatic six-try hammering.
They didn’t have it all their own way, but after surviving an early bombardment took a 26-0 lead into half-time, with Kalaveti Ravouvou, Joe Batley, Gabe Oghre and Louis Rees-Zammit getting on the scoresheet.
Pat Lam’s side carried on in the second-half, too, with Santi Grondona and Ellis Genge scoring either side of a Rodrigo Isgro try for the hosts, while Marcus Smith gave the Quins faithful something to cheer about with a late consolation score.
However, the Bears had their name up in lights, handing Quins just their third Big Game defeat since the event began.
Big Game delivers again
In this new PREM era, Harlequins are really leading the way for making games into spectacles, and this was yet another roaring success.
The pre-match lights show, music and fireworks were befitting a major World Cup final or concert, let alone for a regular season match, and that was backed up with even more pizzazz at half-time too.
There’s a real razzle-dazzle feel to these events, and long may it continue.
Game in numbers
As you would expect with some of the rugby played, there were some unbelievable stats recorded.
Across the match, Bristol notched a whopping 527 metres ball-in-hand, nearly double Harlequins’ tally of 280. They also notched an average of 7 metres-per-carry, with the Bears making a total of 76 carries across the game.
Bristol also had to front up in defence, too, making a total of 157 tackles.
Individual players yet again flourished for the Bears. Rees-Zammit was their main threat ball-in-hand, making 152 metres from his 15 carries as well as beating eight defenders. Genge was the next best carrier for the Bears with 70 metres from 11 carries.
England hopeful Fitz Harding also led the way in defence, making 19 tackles alongside two turnovers.
All too familiar
If there was a game to sum up Harlequins PREM season to date, it would be this. They were incredibly close at times, but yet came away with an absolute hiding.
Quins’ first-half in particular will make grim viewing in the review session. They notched 56% possession, 72% territory and made 27 entries into the Bristol 22, but came away with zero points. Zero. In comparison, Bristol had 44% possession, 28% territory and four entries into the first-half, for a total of 26 points. A 26-point swing is huge, let alone against a team like Bristol who can simply run away with games.
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While they did eventually cross the whitewash twice, during two periods when Bristol were reduced to 14, Harlequins will be absolutely kicking themselves over the sheer amount of missed opportunities tonight. To their credit, they did actually work it into decent areas of the pitch, but would then see a pass fall to the floor, rebound off a chest or simply handed over by poor discipline. Bristol’s defence also deserves a lot of credit, forcing plenty of errors too.
This day promised to be something quite special for the Londoners, a chance to potentially restart their season after what has been an underwhelming start, but they now sit even further behind the play-off chasing pack with a record of just two wins from seven.
Bear title hunt?
While Hugh Grant might think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow airport when he gets down about the state of the world, this Planet Rugby writer opts to watch Bristol Bears highlights. In fact, I’d probably watch this one again.
There was such a child-like joy and fearlessness about the way Bristol systematically tore Harlequins apart on the hallowed Twickenham turf in a performance that yet again shows the Bears can easily push for the title.
Bristol’s six tries, which came from just eight visits into the 22, had a sprinkle of Christmas magic on them. Ravouvou’s opener came via a ludicrous no-look pass from Genge and a lofty Tom Jordan seed.
Jordan was at it again for the second, putting in a lovely kick to send Ravouvou through, who in turn connected with eventual scorer Batley. Their fourth was also a piece of individual brilliance from Rees-Zammit, who had an excellent game at full-back. Even Genge’s own score was a remarkable piece of solo skill, charging home from 50 metres after a quick lineout.
Around those, too, they added some proper beef to go alongside the lashings of Prosecco, with some powerful work in the tight. The likes of Pedro Rubiolo, Genge, Joe Owen, Benhard Janse van Rensburg and Lovejoy Chawatama brought heaps of physicality to the party, while Oghre and Grondona also scored via more traditional mediums with a pick-and-go and a maul.
Bristol again showed themselves to be the real deal, and while they might be rueing their inability to explode beyond 50 points – which looked very much on the cards at one point – this will serve as a real marker heading into the New Year.
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