{"id":671589,"date":"2026-01-03T17:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T17:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/671589\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T17:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T17:22:10","slug":"bristol-edge-sale-19-17-in-ashton-gate-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/671589\/","title":{"rendered":"Bristol edge Sale 19-17 in Ashton Gate thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/george_ford-8.jpg\" alt=\"George Ford kicked two conversions and a penalty for Sale\" title=\"George Ford kicked two conversions and a penalty for Sale\" width=\"650\" height=\"392\" class=\"img-responsive\"\/><\/p>\n<p>George Ford kicked two conversions and a penalty for Sale<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \u00a9PA<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bristol Bears 19-17 Sale Sharks, Ashton Gate<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Bristol Bears opened 2026 with a dramatic 19-17 comeback win over Sale Sharks at Ashton Gate, extending their Gallagher PREM winning run to four matches. In front of more than 16,000 supporters, the Bears overturned a second-half deficit to claim a crucial home victory.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The contest began with high intensity on a cold night, Bristol asserting themselves early with a scrum penalty inside their own 22. Sale struck first after 17 minutes when Tom O\u2019Flaherty found space on the right wing to score in the corner, with George Ford converting.<\/p>\n<p>Bristol responded with increased pressure. Louis Rees-Zammit, recently committed on a new long-term deal, linked well with Kalaveti Ravouvou, who burst through midfield but was held short. Rees-Zammit was later withdrawn for a head injury assessment, with Matias Moroni introduced.<\/p>\n<p>Just before the interval, Bristol capitalised on sustained forward pressure. A driving maul drew a penalty, and playing under advantage, Joe Owen powered over the line. Tom Jordan converted to level the score at 7-7 at half-time.<\/p>\n<p>Bristol started the second half positively, but Sale again struck first. Ernst van Rhyn forced his way over despite strong resistance, and Ford converted before adding a penalty moments later to stretch the Sharks\u2019 lead to 17-7.<\/p>\n<p>Bristol refused to fold. After Moroni was brought down by a high tackle, Jordan kicked deep into the Sharks\u2019 22. From the resulting attack, Benhard Janse van Rensburg released Moroni, who finished well in the corner to reduce the deficit.<\/p>\n<p>Momentum swung further when Rekeiti Ma\u2019asi-White was shown a yellow card for a deliberate infringement near his own line. Bristol took full advantage. With ten minutes remaining, Ellis Genge produced a powerful carry before offloading to Ravouvou, who scored under the posts. James Williams converted to give the Bears a 19-17 lead.<\/p>\n<p>The closing minutes were frantic. Pedro Rubiolo and Santi Grondona produced crucial turnovers to deny Sale, and Bristol managed the clock before kicking into touch to seal a hard-earned victory.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Team line up:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Bristol:<\/strong> Rees-Zammit, Boshoff, Janse van Rensburg, Williams, Ravouvou; Jordan, Randall; Genge, Oghre, Chawatama, Rubiolo, Owen, Grondona, Harding (c), Mata.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Reserves<\/strong>: Thacker, Lahiff, Kloska, Taylor, Grondona, Marmion, Worsley, Heward.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sale<\/strong>: Carpenter, O&#8217;Flaherty, du Preez, Ma&#8217;asi-White, Wills; Ford, Quirke; Rodd, Cowan-Dickie, Harper, Bamber, van Rhyn (c), Vermeulen, Dugdale, T Curry.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Reserves<\/strong>: Jibulu, McIntyre, Bell, Burrow, Gilmore, Warr, Louw, Wehr.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Ford kicked two conversions and a penalty for Sale \u00a9PA Bristol Bears 19-17 Sale Sharks, Ashton Gate&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-671589","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-great-britain","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115832326904172799","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671589","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=671589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}