{"id":843898,"date":"2026-03-23T01:22:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T01:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/843898\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T01:22:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T01:22:21","slug":"leicester-33-19-bristol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/843898\/","title":{"rendered":"Leicester 33 – 19 Bristol"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leicester Tigers claim crucial win over fellow play-off contenders Bristol Bears at home as they move up to third in Prem table; Bears decided to rest some key players including Ellis Genge and Louis Rees-Zammit, a decision that could prove fateful in play-off race <\/p>\n

Last Updated: 22\/03\/26 6:06pm<\/p>\n

\"Orlando<\/p>\n

\n Orlando Bailey charges forward for Leicester <\/p>\n

Leicester took a huge step towards securing an end-of-season play-off spot with a hard-fought 33-19 victory over Bristol in an exciting Gallagher Prem contest.<\/p>\n

There was little between the sides but Leicester crucially scored eight points in the dying stages to give them five points and Bristol none.<\/p>\n

Joaquin Moro, Hanro Liebenberg, Izaia Perese and Gabriel Hamer-Webb scored Leicester’s tries, with Billy Searle adding two conversions and three penalties.<\/p>\n

\"Leicester <\/p>\n

Leicester fly-half Billy Searle kicked three penalties and two conversions for a 13-point haul <\/p>\n

Fitz Harding scored two tries for Bristol and Kalaveti Ravouvou the other, with both Sam Worsley and James Williams adding conversions.<\/p>\n

Leicester’s win took them up to third in the table, with Bristol dropping to fifth and the visitors will reflect on their decision to rest key men Louis Rees-Zammit, Ellis Genge and Tom Jordan against the near full-strength Tigers.<\/p>\n

Follow Sky Sports on WhatsApp <\/p>\n

Follow Sky Sports on WhatsApp for the latest sports news, videos, features, analysis and much more <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The first 15 minutes were frenetic but scoreless as both sides lacked accuracy in the opposition 22. The Tigers came closest to scoring, but Ollie Hassell-Collins was unable to take a difficult high pass with the tryline beckoning.<\/p>\n

However, Leicester continued in the ascendancy and were rewarded with the opening score when Moro finished off a sustained period of pressure by forcing his way over.<\/p>\n

Two minutes later the home side crossed again when a flowing move took them deep into opposition territory, from where Liebenberg crashed over.<\/p>\n

Twitter Due to your consent preferences, you\u2019re not able to view this Privacy Options<\/a> <\/p>\n

The Bears looked set to struggle but regrouped and, with their first real attack, skipper Harding powered through tackles for their first try.<\/p>\n

That was the spur Bristol needed and they soon scored a second when a strong run from Gabriel Oghre gave Ravouvou the opportunity to brush aside tackles from Freddie Steward and Ollie Chessum for an excellent solo score.<\/p>\n

Worsley missed the touchline conversion before former Bristol fly-half Searle succeeded with a penalty to give the Tigers a 17-12 half-time lead.<\/p>\n

Four minutes after the restart that advantage was extended when Searle kicked another penalty after the visitors were penalised for pulling down a scrum.<\/p>\n

Leicester brought on England scrum-half Jack van Poortvliet, while Bristol made a tactical switch, with Williams switching from centre to fly-half in place of Worsley, who left the field.<\/p>\n

\"Bristol <\/p>\n

Bristol Bears are bumped down to fifth but sit just three points behind Exeter Chiefs in fourth <\/p>\n

Bears No 8 Viliame Mata also hobbled off but his side came back into contention when Harding crossed for his second score by finishing off a lineout drive.<\/p>\n

Bristol continued to dominate the third quarter but could not capitalise further and still trailed by a point going into the final 16 minutes.<\/p>\n

A high tackle from Williams on Hamer-Webb was penalised, which saw the Tigers kick for the corner and, from the resulting passage of play replacement Perese squeezed over.<\/p>\n

Searle missed the conversion but added a late penalty before Hamer-Webb broke Bristol’s hearts with a last-minute breakaway try.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leicester Tigers claim crucial win over fellow play-off contenders Bristol Bears at home as they move up to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":843899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8818],"tags":[42374,381,748,393,71129,4884,2159,12074,2466,11952,6875,4151,2619,197,79,16,7922,15],"class_list":["post-843898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bristol","tag-ball","tag-bristol","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-gallagher","tag-great-britain","tag-guinness","tag-harlequins","tag-newcastle","tag-northampton","tag-premiership","tag-rugby","tag-sale","tag-sky","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-union","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116275874889949853","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843898","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=843898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}