{"id":36245,"date":"2025-04-20T18:22:07","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T18:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/36245\/"},"modified":"2025-04-20T18:22:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T18:22:07","slug":"bristol-v-leicester-winners-and-losers-tigers-hold-their-breath-on-pollard-planet-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/36245\/","title":{"rendered":"Bristol v Leicester winners and losers: Tigers ‘hold their breath’ on Pollard : Planet Rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following a 36-19 victory for Leicester Tigers over Bristol Bears at Ashton Gate, here\u2019s our winners and losers from the Premiership clash that took place on Sunday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Winners<\/b><\/p>\n

Tommy Reffell<\/p>\n

Player of the Match and rightly so as the Wales international led from the front in an impressive defensive effort from the\u00a0Tigers<\/a> as they move up to second in the table.<\/p>\n

Reffell<\/a> was a real thorn in the side of Bristol<\/a> as he dominated the breakdown battle, which is his bread and butter and racked up the tackles too. Key moving forward.<\/p>\n

Kalaveti Ravouvou<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t seen it yet, then sit back and enjoy the Fijian\u2019s stunning offload to Gabriel Ibitoye that gave the wing a free run to the whitewash. It was top drawer.<\/p>\n

Ravouvou also chipped in with a well-taken try as his tally for the Premiership<\/a> season grows. What a signing he has been for the Bears and this was another fine shift.<\/p>\n

Fijian star leaves fans GOBSMACKED with \u2018outrageous\u2019 Tamati Ellison-esque offload<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Jack van Poortvliet<\/p>\n

Has been edging nearer to his pre-injury best of late, and this was another step in the right direction from Van Poortvliet as he mixed his game nicely in a vital win.<\/p>\n

While he might not be in the conversation for the British & Irish Lions, the Leicester scrum-half looks destined to play an important role for England in the summer.<\/p>\n

David Kidwell<\/p>\n

The Australian will be delighted with his side\u2019s defensive showing on Sunday as they frustrated the usually deadly Bears throughout and thoroughly deserved their win.<\/p>\n

Tigers set their stall out early on and the signs were positive as they repelled Bristol time and again, thus taking the confidence out of their hosts\u2019 potent attack.<\/p>\n

Bath<\/p>\n

15 points clear at the end of the round, things couldn\u2019t be looking any better for Bath in the Premiership right now. Injuries aside yesterday, they must be delighted.<\/p>\n

Ollie Chessum<\/p>\n

He might not have been outstanding, but for a first game back after a month out injured, this is very much a win for the returning Leicester and England star.<\/p>\n

Leicester Tigers will need Chessum fully fit and firing if and when they make the play-offs and this was a positive first step in the second-row returning to his best.<\/p>\n

Freddie Steward<\/p>\n

One of his better performances in recent times, Steward was solid defensively, kicked well out of hand and also showed pace for his try in a confidence-boosting effort.<\/p>\n

Bristol v Leicester: Five takeaways as Lions \u2018dark horse\u2019 dominates to down \u2018outrageous and utterly awful\u2019 Bears<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Hanro Liebenberg<\/p>\n

Planet Rugby features editor Jared Wright has mentioned in his takeaways piece that Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus would do a lot worse than taking a look at the Tigers flank, with this another steely effort from the forward as he got through a mountain of work and was a rock in everything he did. A real focal point for Tigers.<\/p>\n

Losers<\/b><\/p>\n

Solomone Kata<\/p>\n

Will be a relieved man as his yellow card for a head\/shoulder on head tackle on Bears fly-half AJ MacGinty did not cost his side as they held on for the away victory.<\/p>\n

However, it\u2019s become an all too common theme of Kata\u2019s game that cards appear to follow him and Leicester fans will want that rectified when it comes to the crunch games later in the season.<\/p>\n

Gabriel Ibitoye<\/p>\n

A tad harsh as there were moments of quality with ball in hand but Ibitoye will know there are aspects of this performance that he won\u2019t be pleased with this evening.<\/p>\n

The stray offload that went into the hands of Ollie Hassell-Collins and some disappointing backfield cover from the back three in general, these need to be ironed out.<\/p>\n

Pat Lam<\/p>\n

The Bristol boss will be hugely disappointed with this performance and the loss ultimately leaves them within touching distance of a dangerous Saracens in fifth spot.<\/p>\n

A trip to Northampton next Saturday is a chance to get back on the horse, and it\u2019s the perfect opportunity for the Bears to face Saints who may have one eye on Dublin.<\/p>\n

Handre Pollard<\/p>\n

Not his best outing despite being on the winning side, while it looked like he suffered an injury in the final knockings of the game as he was wrong-footed in defence.<\/p>\n

Leicester and Springboks fans will be holding their breath, it is nothing serious and it Pollard<\/a>\u2018s exit was just a precaution as boy do Leicester need him for their run-in.<\/p>\n

Gabriel Oghre<\/p>\n

Replaced by Lam for tactical reasons just 31 minutes as Harry Thacker emerged will have no doubt disappointed the starting hooker, who has had a solid season to date.<\/p>\n

Oghre might have had an injury we\u2019re unaware of \u2013 he appeared to be walking fine off the pitch \u2013 but if not it\u2019s always tough to be replaced that early in a fixture.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0<\/b>Freakish Marcus Smith incident ends incredible streak in the UNLUCKIEST manner<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following a 36-19 victory for Leicester Tigers over Bristol Bears at Ashton Gate, here\u2019s our winners and losers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,393,126,4884,20872,225,20795,12,6875,20798,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-36245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-features","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-handre-pollard","14":"tag-home-page","15":"tag-leicester-tigers","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-premiership","18":"tag-tommy-reffell","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114371686795460861","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}