Bristol Bears pass test of character to win in rain away at Exeter Chiefs

Pat Lam warned pre-match that his side weren’t coming to play pretty rugby, they were coming to play winning rugby as Storm Ingrid smashed into Sandy Park, and so it proved as his Bristol Bears battled to 8-3 victory over their top four rivals Exeter Chiefs.

The rain, wind and mud were a test of Bristol’s grit and character, and with captain Fitz Harding and player the match Gabriel Oghre at the fore, they passed with flying colours to inflict a first home defeat of the season on high-flying Chiefs.

Their success was based on an outstanding defensive effort in a game that was always going to be a low-scoring affair due to the weather. The first half was played in very difficult wet and windy conditions, with Bristol enjoying the elements behind their backs in the opening 40 minutes.

It was a half of numerous set pieces, kicking for territory, knock-ons and spilt passes as both sides struggled to come to grips with the greasy ball. Exeter suffered an early blow with an injury to Australia international flanker Tom Hooper, and it was Bristol who had the first opportunity to break the stalemate in the 17th minute, but Scotland fly-half Tom Jordan missed a 35-metre penalty which would have been an easy kick on any other day.

Exeter were finding it difficult kicking into the wind out of hand, with Henry Slade, Harvey Skinner and Charlie Chapman all making errors. However, England centre Slade did find the target with a penalty just before the half-hour mark after Bristol played the scrum-half at a breakdown just outside their own 22.

The game’s opening try, if it came at all, was likely to arrive via a mistake, and so it proved. A huge swirling kick by Jordan was spilt backwards by Exeter full-back Olly Woodburn, and after Slade was unable to gather the ball cleanly at the first attempt, he was left with no option but to carry the ball over his own line.

Bristol won the subsequent five-metre scrum, and looked to be on the left hand side, as Benhard Janse van Rensburg slipped a pass that would have seen Matias Moroni walk in, but the ball was knocked down by a diving Henry Slade who likely would have been given his marching orders had Wales international Louis Rees-Zammit not played on and switched play before sending a brave wide pass to winger Noah Heward to gather and step inside Woodburn to touch down to give the Bears a 5-3 interval lead, with Jordan missing the wide conversion effort.

Sunshine greeted the start of the second half and Bristol immediately came under intense pressure on their own line, but the Bears defended superbly to eventually earn themselves a penalty and clear the danger, holding out for a remarkable 25 phases of drives from the home fowards, with Exeter guilty of going tunnel vision on forcing their way over and forgetting their dangerous backs.

Slade had a chance to put the Chiefs ahead from a scrum penalty after 53 minutes but missed the 49-metre kick, and even though the hosts continued to dominate territory, they just could not breach the visitors’ defence and rarely looked like scoring a try, with their play often too predictable and lacking a real cutting edge.

With two minutes remaining, on a very rare entry into the Chiefs’ half, Bristol secured a penalty at the breakdown with Janse van Rensburg jackalling over Slade, who failed to release, and replacement fly-half James Williams slotted the simple kick to put the Bears 8-3 up with 90 seconds remaining.

There was time for Exeter to restart, but the Bears ran the clock down and secured a win that lifted them above the Chiefs into third place in the Gallagher PREM table with 10 of the 18 rounds completed.

Exeter Chiefs: 15 Olly Woodburn, 14 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, 13 Henry Slade, 12 Will Haydon-Wood, 11 Paul Brown-Bampoe, 10 Harvey Skinner, 9 Charlie Chapman; 1 Scott Sio, 2 Joseph Dweba, 3 Bachuki Tchumbadze, 4 Dafydd Jenkins (c), 5 Andrea Zambonin, 6 Tom Hooper, 7 Ethan Roots, 8 Greg Fisilau

Replacements : 16 Jack Yeandle, 17 Will Goodrick-Clarke, 18 Jimmy Roots, 19 Lewis Pearson, 20 Richard Capstick, 21 Tom Cairns, 22 Ben Hammersley, 23 Campbell Ridl

Bristol Bears: 15 Louis Rees-Zammit, 14 Noah Heward, 13 Matias Moroni, 12 Benhard Janse van Rensburg, 11 Kalaveti Ravouvou, 10 Tom Jordan, 9 Harry Randall; 1 Ellis Genge, 2 Gabriel Oghre, 3 George Kloska, 4 Pedro Rubio, 5 Joe Batley, 6 Steven Luatua, 7 Fitz Harding (c), 8 Viliame Mata

Replacements: 16 Harry Thacker, 17 Max Lahiff, 18 Jimmy Halliwell, 19 Joe Owen, 20 Santiago Grondona, 21 Kieran Marmion, 22 James Williams, 23 Gabriel Ibitoye

Referee: Karl Dickson

Assistant referees: Sara Cox and Greg Macdonald

TMO: Craig Maxwell-Keys

Bristol Bears pass test of character to win in rain away at Exeter Chiefs

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