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Leicester Tigers players celebrate their bonus-point victory over Bristol Bears - David Rogers/Getty Images
Bristol Bears 19 Leicester Tigers 36
Before this thrilling, topsy-turvy fixture, Michael Cheika challenged his players to plant their flag in the Ashton Gate turf. This was no metaphor; in the changing rooms, the Leicester head coach brandished a literal Tigers flag pre-match in a bid to rally his troops in what was in essence a must-win fixture against second-placed Bristol in the race to the top four.
“It wasn’t the flag that worked – it was the players!” Cheika joked afterwards. “Mate, I’ll be honest, that’s for inside the dressing room. It’s nothing fancy. Symbols are important sometimes – if they’re made in a certain way. They have to be built on. I’ve always believed that, no matter what culture you’re in. It’s something for us; sometimes it’s a bit of fun or a bit serious or whatever.”
Whatever the meaning, it certainly looked serious – and it worked in spades. This was Leicester, blighted by inconsistency all season, at their fiery, ferocious best, completely deserving of their bonus-point victory against a Bristol side which now finds itself in a veritable dogfight to make the play-offs. Leicester, hammered by the Bears 54-24 earlier in the season, now leapfrog Bristol into second place in the Premiership table, having deprived their hosts of a single match point in the league for the first time since the end of December.
What was supposed to be a sunny circus for Bristol, consolidating their place in the top two, disappeared amid Bank Holiday festivity. The Bears scored what might have been the try of the season thanks to a ludicrously skilful offload from their supreme centre Kalaveti Ravouvou but the hosts were worked out by a Leicester tactical masterclass. Pat Lam’s side play fast and loose but the emphasis here was firmly on the loose. The Tigers spent a quarter of the match down to 14 players – both Joe Heyes and Solomone Kata were yellow-carded for high tackles – yet Bristol still managed only three tries to Leicester’s five. After the drubbing against Gloucester and with tough fixtures to come, the wheels may well be coming off.
“Frustrating,” said Lam, Bristol’s director of rugby. “We said at half-time that we had just been messy. And when we’re messy we’re average. We have had two games where we have not been at our best, but we know what our best looks like.”
Not many sides this season have had Bristol as rattled and ragged as the Tigers, who neutralised the Bears’ unique attacking brand with a phenomenal defensive intensity, spearheaded by flanker Tommy Reffell, who was a menace on the floor. Occasionally in the first half, Leicester even attacked from their own 22 with the inventiveness of Bristol – with wings Adam Radwan and Ollie Hassell-Collins immense – and now surely must be favourites to clinch a top-four place, despite the absurd competition.
“All the games in the run-in are finals,” Cheika added. “It’s like the group stage of a World Cup.”
The key moment came just over an hour into the fixture. There were 10 points between the sides but Bristol had the momentum. But the Bears line-out was atrocious all afternoon and it was a steal from Cameron Henderson, who went on to score Leicester’s fifth try late on from a maul, that pilfered Bristol’s pocket. The Tigers found Freddie Steward in space out wide and his stop-start step left Benjamin Elizalde for dead, allowing the full-back to score and seal the bonus point.
Although Leicester opened the scoring, with Radwan getting on the end of a sublime Jack van Poortvliet break, Bristol had little reason to feel disheartened given what came moments later. Ravouvou threw an offload from the Gods – blind and round his back – to Gabriel Ibitoye to level the scores. Ibitoye, on his first outing since Bristol were humbled by Sale in December, looked stunned as he scored. As were all those at Ashton Gate and beyond.
But the moment went to Bristol’s heads. With Ibitoye showboating, Hassell-Collins picked off a gratuitous pass from the wing and raced away under the sticks. Van Poortvliet, in fine form, dummied from the base of a maul to extend Leicester’s lead and Handre Pollard’s penalty gave the Tigers a 17-point half-time cushion.
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Tigers players applaud the fans following their deserved victory at Ashton Gate - Steven Paston/PA
Bristol mounted a comeback of sorts, with Ibitoye this time managing to find his intended target, Rich Lane, and the full-back putting Ravouvou away. The Bears never went into overdrive, however, managing just the sole score, through Harry Randall, after Steward’s decisive try. Henderson’s try from a driving maul at the death capped Leicester’s day, leaving Bristol hoping for the swiftest of Easter resurrections.
Match details
Scoring sequence: 0-5 Radwan try, 5-5 Ibitoye try, 5-10 Hassell-Collins try, 5-12 Pollard con, 5-17 Van Poortvliet try, 5-19 Pollard con, 5-22 Pollard pen, 10-22 Ravouvou try, 12-22 Macginty con, 12-27 Steward try, 12-29 Pollard con, 17-29 Randall try, 19-29 Macginty con, 19-34 Henderson try, 19-36 Shillcock con.
Bristol XV: R Lane (Elizalde 62); D Bailey (Jenkins 60), K Ravouvou, B Janse van Rensburg, G Ibitoye (Marmion 64); AJ Macginty, H Randall; E Genge (Thomas 71), G Oghre (Thacker 31), G Kloska (Lahiff 43), J Dun (Heenan 41, Harding 56), J Caulfield, S Luatua, F Harding (c) (Grondona 47), V Mata.
Leicester XV: F Steward; A Radwan, S Kata, J Woodward (Kelly 54), O Hassell-Collins; H Pollard (Shillcock 79), J van Poortvliet (Youngs 64); N Smith (Whitcombe 66), J Montoya (c, Clare 56), J Heyes (Hurd 70), C Henderson, O Chessum, H Liebenberg, T Reffell (Ilione 69), O Cracknell (Hurd 41, Rogerson 48).
Yellow cards: Heyes 38, Kata 69.
Referee: K Dickson
Attendance: 16,012
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