Bristol Bears gifted Bordeaux-Begles one of the top seedings in the last 16 knockout rounds as the French heavyweights punished the hosts’ errors to win 27-15 at Ashton Gate in the final pool stage game.
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The reigning Champions Cup were too sharp for the Bears, but as much as anything, it was the rain that undid the overly ambitious Bristol as their sevens-style rugby came a cropper with Louis Bielle-Biarrey dotting down a hat-trick and Nicolas Depoortere also on the scoresheet, all from errors by the English side.
Gabriel Oghre and Benhard Janse van Rensburg scored tries for Bristol, and they could have wrestled back control of the tie had Ellis Genge successfully grounded the ball over the line in the second half, but his failure to do so proved costly. And despite having won three of their four pool stage games, the Bears now look likely to have a difficult away tie in the next round against either the Stormers of Toulouse, providing Northampton can beat the Scarlets at Franklin’s Gardens.
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After surviving early pressure in their 22, Bristol opened the scoring through some sharp attacking play. Harry Randall, back in the starting XV, fulfilled his brief by injecting pace with a quick tap penalty before weaving his way deep into the opposition 22.
Oghre continued the attack, picking and driving over in the corner right in front of the block of wonderfully noisy and colourful travelling French fans, who weren’t silenced for a second, for they perhaps knew what was to come.
The margins for error are so small against such a high-calibre side, and Bordeaux ruthlessly punished the Bears when they put a foot wrong. A speculative, and frankly hopeful chip kick down the middle from Louis Rees-Zasmmit was fielded on the full, and Jalibert exploited a broken defensive line full of tiring forwards to slice through before releasing Bielle-Biarrey to speed away.
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When the Bears’ most reliable player, Benhard Janse van Rensburg, is making errors, you know its not your day, and the South African centre made not one but two for Bordeaux’s second try, as he dropped a pass from Tom Jordan that was slightly behind him and then failed to regather the bouncing ball, allowing the visitors to claim possession and flash it through the hands for Bielle-Biarrey to finish in the left hand corner.
Bordeaux really should have been out of sight by 25 minutes when Bielle-Biarrey bombed a golden try-scoring chance from yet another Bristol handling error, this time from Jimmy Williams, as he hacked the ball on too hard to put it dead with a clear lead to win the race to dot it down.
But Bristol’s generosity knew no limits. Moments after replacing the injured Tom Jordan, who took a boot to the face, Sam Worsley had a moment to forget as he failed to secure a bouncing ball hacked in behind to gift Nicolas Depoortere an easy score to make it 17-5 to the visitors at the break.
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Ten minutes into the second half, with momentum having swung back towards the hosts, Ellis Genge blasted his way over the try line but lost control of the ball trying to ground it, with the post pad getting in the way.
Having held Bordeaux captain Maxime Lamothe up over the line to stay in the tie, the Bears struck back through Benhard Janse van Rensburg, who redeemed himself with a devilishly powerful finish, pumping his legs to drive Depoortere over his own line, before reaching out to dot down despite Bastien Vergnes-Taillefer trying to dislodge the ball.
Worsley converted, but Jalibert hit back with a penalty to make it an eight-point gap on the scoreboard. Worsley closed that gap to one score with his one three points from the kicking tee as the tension in the stadium rose.
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A missed Jalibert penalty kept the Bears’ hopes alive, but they found themselves entrenched in their own 22, and in the final moments, an inaccurate slap back from Noah Heward under a high ball was once again pounced upon by the visitors, hacking the ball on for Bielle-Biarrey to dot down a fortuitous hat-trick.
Bristol Bears : 15. Louis Rees-Zammit, 14. Noah Heward, 13. Benhard Janse van Rensburg, 12. James Williams, 11. Kalaveti Ravouvou, 10. Tom Jordan, 9. Harry Randall, 1. Ellis Genge, 2. Gabriel Oghre, 3. George Kloska, 4. Pedro Rubiolo, 5. Joe Batley, 6. Santiago Grondona, 7. Fitz Harding (c), 8. Bill Mata
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Replacements : 16. Harry Thacker, 17. Max Lahiff, 18. Jimmy Halliwell, 19. Joe Owen, 20. Benjamin Grondona, 21. Kieran Marmion, 22. Sam Worsley, 23. Matias Moroni
Bordeaux-Bègles: 15. Romain Buros, 14. Damian Penaud, 13. Nicolas Depoortere, 12. Yoram Moefana, 11. Louis Bielle-Biarrey, 10. Matthieu Jalibert, 9. Martin Page-Relo, 1. Jefferson Poirot, 2. Maxime Lamothe (c), 3. Carlü Sadie, 4. Boris Palu, 5. Adam Coleman, 6. Jean-Luc du Preez, 7. Cameron Woki, 8. Temo Matiu
Replacements: 16. Connor Sa, 17. Ugo Boniface, 18. Ben Tameifuna, 19. Jonny Gray, 20. Bastien Vergnes-Taillefer, 21. Joey Carbery, 22. Rohan Janse van Rensburg, 23. Salesi Rayasi
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Referee: Nika Amashukeli (Geo)
Assistant referees: Shota Tevzadze (Geo) and Andrew Cole (Ire)
TMO : Ben Whitehouse (Wal)