Bristol Bears<\/a> players<\/p>\n15. Noah Heward – 6<\/strong><\/p>\nThe Bears’ full-back was the tip of the sword in the backline as he found ways to pierce the home defence with some wonderful lines, but he couldn\u2019t quite make the killer break. He will be in contention for the 15 jersey in the big games coming up.<\/p>\n
14. Jack Bates – 5<\/strong><\/p>\nThe winger had a near faultless display, but he was also a peripheral figure, working hard to stay in-field when he got the ball but unable to really stress the home defence.<\/p>\n
13. Victor Worsnip – 5<\/strong><\/p>\nThe young centre got hit hard by Lewis Pearson but wore it well, bouncing straight back up. He showed some nice handling by tipping a couple of passes to get players through gaps.<\/p>\n
12. James Williams – 6<\/strong><\/p>\nMaking just his second appearance of the season, having suffered an ankle injury against Sale in the opening game of the season, the centre played 40 minutes before departing at half-time in a pre-planned move. His passing was assured if unspectacular.<\/p>\n
11. Aidan Boshoff – 7<\/strong><\/p>\nThe winger struggled in the aerial battle with Paul Brown-Bampoe with loads of kicking in the game early on, but he took his two tries well. The first came after hugging the left touchline to provide width before taking the pass and rounding towards the posts in the big Sandy Park dead-ball area to allow Worsley to make it a seven-point score. The second was a thing of beauty as Worsley spotted the Welshman in acres of space and delivered a pinpoint cross-field kick for Boshoff to take on the full in the dead-ball area. Only an outstanding try-saving tackle from Campbell Ridl denied Boshoff a hat-trick.<\/p>\n
10. Sam Worsley – 7<\/strong><\/p>\nMaking a return to the starting line-up, having recovered from a foot injury, the fly-half showed he is a legitimate option for Pat Lam as back-up fly-half in the big games to come, as he was the best player on the pitch on Saturday. When the ball wasn\u2019t box-kicked by Wolstenholme and actually got out to the backline, Worsley moved it wonderfully, showing a range of passes and clever kicks, providing an assist with a cross-field kick for Boshoff\u2019s second. He might need to work on his drop kicking, though, after getting charged down by Lewis Pearson.<\/p>\n
9. Sam Wolstenholme – 4<\/strong><\/p>\nThe scrum-half\u2019s box kicking was not as accurate as it has been in recent weeks, which allowed Exeter to defuse the high bombs either by calling a mark or running without pressure, able to get to the catchers. More than likely just following orders, but there was far too much kicking.<\/p>\n
1. Max Lahiff – 6<\/strong><\/p>\nMaking a rare start on the loosehead, Lahiff made his first appearance of the season, having recovered from a broken foot he suffered against Bath in the PREM semi-final. He looked on top in the scrum and even had time for a powerful burst in the lead-up to Boshoff\u2019s first try as a clever tip pass put him into space in the Exeter 22.<\/p>\n
2. Harry Thacker – 6<\/strong><\/p>\nBack to captain the side, having recovered from a training ground head knock, the hooker had a quieter game than he would have liked, but still managed to make a trademark run after Exeter overthrew at a lineout to him. His darts were on point throughout.<\/p>\n
3. Lovejoy Chawatama – 6<\/strong><\/p>\nThe tighthead prop was steady in the scrum throughout the contest and was missed when he came off after the break.<\/p>\n
4. Ethan Surrey – 6<\/strong><\/p>\nThe young lock showed off some impressive handling with clever tip passes to put teammates through gaps.<\/p>\n
5. Steele Barker – 6<\/strong><\/p>\nLike his second row partner, he caught the eye with some clever passing and hard carrying.<\/p>\n
6. George Taylor – 6<\/strong><\/p>\nMaking his injury return following a horrible knee injury, the flanker was a key component in Bristol\u2019s dominant lineout, which stole so many throws from the Chiefs.<\/p>\n
7. Kenzie Jenkins – 6<\/strong><\/p>\nBack in the side despite having broken his nose last time out against Argentina, he put in some crunching tackles to set the tone early on.<\/p>\n
8. John Edwards – 6<\/strong><\/p>\nDiscovered and signed after the Bears\u2019 Talent ID Day, the number eight is a long, leggy, rangy ball carrier and he managed to use his footwork to carry into weak shoulders.<\/p>\n
Replacements<\/strong> :<\/p>\n16. Tomas Gwilliam – 5<\/p>\n
17. Louie Trevett – 5<\/p>\n
18. Jimmy Halliwell – 5<\/p>\n
19. Will Ramply – 5<\/p>\n
20. Sam Grahamslaw – 5<\/p>\n
21. Ellis Bevan – 5<\/p>\n
22. Mat Protheroe – 5<\/p>\n
23. Evan Morris – 6<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bristol Bears lost 22-17 to Exeter Chiefs in the 2025\/26 PREM Rugby Cup to leave them bottom of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,21571,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-589826","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-bears","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115602088106988994","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589826","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=589826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_GettyImages-2247944301.jpg\")
Aidan Boshoff of Bristol Bears goes over to score his side’s second try (Photo by Harry Trump\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n