“One of the areas that we pride ourselves on is our line-out defence but they broke through it three times today.”
Press Association Sport Staff
08:42, 10 May 2026
BRISTOL, ENGLAND – MAY 9: Bristol Bears’ Matias Moroni scores his sides third try during the Gallagher PREM match between Bristol Bears and Saracens at Ashton Gate on May 9, 2026 in Bristol, England. (Photo by Bob Bradford – CameraSport via Getty Images)(Image: CameraSport via Getty Images)
Bristol Bears director of rugby Pat Lam bemoaned his side’s poor defensive effort as Bears fell to their 10th consecutive defeat at the hands of Saracens.
Saracens built up a 34-21 half-time lead as they exposed a leaky Bristol defence and despite losing forwards Theo McFarland and Maro Itoje to late yellow cards they held off a sustained second-half rally from Bears, who gave themselves too much ground to make up.
The bonus-point win for Saracens reduced the gap between themselves and Exeter and Bristol to just two and one point respectively and with two home games from their three remaining matches, they will fancy their chances of overhauling them.
Lam said: “It’s always a good game against Saracens and it always comes down to little moments but one of the areas that we pride ourselves on is our line-out defence but they broke through it three times today.
“People were in the wrong positions and we didn’t stay connected but we showed the boys some clips at half-time and to their credit they fixed it in the second half as we didn’t concede again until the 79th minute. It’s frustrating that they didn’t do that in the first half.
“We lost a few line-outs and didn’t look after the ruck when quick penalties were taken so being two scores behind at half-time instead of one left us too much to do.”
Saracens’ tries came from Tom Willis, Hugh Tizard, Rotimi Segun, Ben Earl, Tobias Elliott and Fergus Burke, who added a penalty and three conversions. Owen Farrell kicked a conversion. Fitz Harding, Harry Thacker, Matias Moroni and Kalaveti Ravouvou scored Bristol’s tries with Tom Jordan converting three.
Sign up for our South West Rugby newsletter
Want to make sure you are on top of all the rugby news in the South West? Then our new newsletter is the perfect place to do so
All the latest news, views, interviews, reports, and analysis concerning Bristol Bears, Bath Rugby, Exeter Chiefs and Gloucester Rugby are delivered straight to your inbox.
It’s completely free and you can sign up HERE
And Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall was elated with his side’s performance as they kept alive their hopes of an end of season play-off spot with a 41-26 win over Bristol in a thrilling game at Ashton Gate.
McCall said: “In the first half we were great with the ball in attack and very confrontational but we handed them a couple of gifts and so it was frustrating that the half-time score wasn’t as wide as it should have been.
“After the interval I’m proud of how we looked like a team that it mattered to as we showed huge grit in defence to tough it out, especially when we were down to 14 for a decent period of time.
“It was a nerve-wracking ending but fortunately they missed a crucial conversion at a vital stage which calmed me down as we’ve lost three games at home this season in the last five minutes.”
(Image: Getty Images)
McCall paid tribute to fly-half Fergus Burke who contributed 14 of Saracens’ points.
McCall said: “Fergus was brilliant for the 50 minutes that he was on there and he’s certainly a player to watch as he is going places.”
Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam bemoaned his side’s poor defensive effort as Bears fell to their 10th consecutive defeat at the hands of Saracens.
Bristol Bears on Whatsapp
Join Bristol Live’s Whatsapp community for all the biggest Bristol Bears stories sent straight to your phone
Bristol Live is now on WhatsApp and we want you to join our community.
Through the app, we’ll send the Bristol Rovers news, live match coverage, team news, transfers, fixtures, analysis and more straight to your phone.
To join our community you need to already have WhatsApp. All you need to do is click this link and select ‘Join Community’.
No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Bristol Live team.
We also treat community members to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out at any time you like.
To leave our community, click on the name at the top of your screen and choose ‘Exit group’.
If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
Click here to join our WhatsApp community.