Things Looking Up

The pressure was off before kick off with the news that there won't be any relegation from the Gallagher Premiership in this Covid season. Let's hope for the sake of the overall game that this is just a one-off  - don't bank on it. On the pitch we gave the league leaders a tough test as the 18-17 reverse suggests. 

Bristol Bears started convincingly going ahead after Byrne went over from a dynamic maul.

However, their over confidence cost them as two adventurous passes from Piers O'Conor and Siale Piutau gave the alert Santiago Carreras two breakaway tries.

Unfortunately, our defence was not quite so sharp allowing Bristol flanker Heenan to spot a gap and go under the posts untouched to make it all square at half-time.

We were soon back in front with Ollie Thorley finishing. We couldn't build on the five point lead and the dramatic finale was set up with a penalty from Bears with a quarter of the game left.

We held out for 15 minutes, but as pressure mounted Alex Craig was penalised for a high tackle on prop Jake Armstrong and Lloyd converted from a full 40 minutes.

So close, but lots to be happy about - incuding the removal of the threat of relegation.