Bristol Bears defeated Ampthill 40-15 to close the gap on Bath in Pool D of the Premiership Cup
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A youthful Bristol Bears side ran in six tries to defeat a resilient Ampthill in a game dominated by the wet weather at Ashton Gate.
The game was pointless for the first quarter of an hour before a penalty goal for the Championship side acted as a catalyst for multiple Bristol tries.
Harry Rowson, Will Capon, Yann Thomas and Oscar Lennon were all on the scoresheet for the hosts in the first half as they built an impressive 33-3 lead ahead of the break.
The visitors fought hard in the second half, bagging two of their own through Kerr Johnston and James Johnston, whilst Aidan Boshoff secured the win for the Bears.
Bristol dominated possession in the early stages of the game but Ampthill remained solid for the first ten minutes, repelling constant Bears attacks.
The visitors were rewarded for their admirable defensive efforts, counterattacking from a Harry Rowson knock-on and earning a penalty on the Bears 10-metre line.
Skipper, Josh Barton, kicked the penalty goal to give his side the lead on 13 minutes.
Rowson redeemed his mistake almost immediately; Toby Fricker capitalised on an Ampthill error in their own 22 and span the ball wide to the outside centre who dove over in the left corner.
Bristol scored their second try seven minutes later, as Will Capon rumbled over the try line from the back of a driving maul.
Sam Worsley converted his hooker's try to take the score to 12-3.
In the last quarter of the half, the hosts were relentless crossing the paint on three occasions.
The first came in the 30th minute after a period of prolonged pressure on the Ampthill try line led to captain, Yann Thomas, muscling his way over. Thomas' effort, with the assistance of Worsley's boot, took the score to 19-3.
Shortly after, the hosts were awarded a penalty try as tighthead prop, Callum Norrie, collapsed a maul which was rolling at pace towards the Ampthill try line.
Norrie was shown a yellow card for his infringement in the build-up to the score as the Bears were given seven points, with no conversion necessary.
It took Bristol less than a minute to make their man advantage count; centre, Joe Jenkins, sliced through the defensive line before passing left to Oscar Lennon who dove early to slide into the Ampthill try zone, bagging his first score since returning to the West Country after a spell in the MLR with the New England Free Jacks.
Worsley added the extras to make the score 33-3 just before the interval.
The tempo of play early in the second half was significantly slower than the latter stages of the first with neither side able to maintain possession of the ball for any real period of time.
Eventually it was the visitors who broke the deadlock for the half, crossing over in the 58th minute.
Ampthill wrestled for territory for long spells, finally earning ball time deep in the Bears 22 and after a number of phases the ball was span wide to the right wing where Kerr Johnston stepped inside the covering defender to dive over.
Benjamin Grondona was shown a yellow card, as Bristol gave away an accumulation of penalties deep in their own red zone.
The try seemed to encourage the Championship outfit as they had another sustained period of possession following it, but the host defence remained defiant, keeping Ampthill's rewards to a minimum.
After soaking up Ampthill's attacking spell, Bristol launched one of their own – working towards their oppositions try line before spinning the ball left for Aidan Boshoff, who caught it above his head before scoring in the corner.
Sam Worsley slotted a difficult conversion to bring the Bears points tally to 40 as the game approached its conclusion.
However, there was still time for the visitors to score a second as the ball was carried over in the left corner after several phases close to the Bristol line, following a successful Ampthill switch-drive maul.
Barton kicked the conversion in the last play to make the final score 40-15.
BRISTOL BEARS: 40
TRIES: 6 (Rowson 15', Capon 22', Thomas 30', Penalty 34', Lennon 35', Boshoff 70')
CONVERSIONS: 4 (Worsley 23', 31', 36', 71')
PENALTIES: 0
DROP GOALS: 0
YELLOW CARDS: 1 (Grondona 58')
RED CARDS: 0
15. Benjamin Elizalde 14. Siva Naulago 13. Harry Rowson 12. Joe Jenkins 11. Toby Fricker 10. Sam Worsley 9. Oscar Lennon 1. Yann Thomas (c) 2. Will Capon 3. Lovejoy Chawatama 4. Kenzie Jenkins 5. Paddy Pearce 6. Aaron Tull 7. Ed Timpson 8. Benjamin Grondona
Replacements
16. Tom Doughty 17. Louie Trevett 18. Jimmy Halliwell 19. Ethan Surrey 20. Tomas Gwilliam 21. Sam Edwards 22. Gethin O'Callaghan 23. Aidan Boshoff
AMPTHILL:15
TRIES: 2 (K Johnston 58', J Johnston 80')
CONVERSIONS: 1 (Barton 80')
PENALTIES: 1 (Barton 13')
DROP GOALS: 0
YELLOW CARDS: 1 (Norrie 34')
RED CARDS: 0
15. Finlay Parker 14. Kerr Johnston 13. Byron Sharwood 12. Sione Va'enuku 11. Vereimi Qorowale 10. Josh Barton (c) 9. Rory Morgan 1. Harrison Courtney 2. Luke Thompson 3. Callum Norrie 4. Jake Parkinson 5. Aidan King 6. Karl Main 7. Charles Rylands (vc) 8. Lekima Ravuvu
Replacements
16. Syd Blackmore 17. Richard Barrington 18. James Johnston 19. Oscar Hicks 20. Arthur Thomas 21. Charlie West 22. Declan Murphy 23. Evan Mitchell
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