Bristol Bears return to the top of Premiership as a second half comeback saw them defeat Northampton Saints 31-23
Yesterday at 05:19 PM
Bristol Bears came back from 15 points down to defeat Northampton Saints 31-23, ending their losing streak at Ashton Gate and returning to the top of the table.
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A start riddled with handling errors was capitalised on by the Saints, who scored the first two tries of the match through George Hendy and Josh Kemeny.
Bristol finally replied in the latter stages of the half as Gabriel Ibitoye and Kalaveti Ravouvou crossed the line to get the hosts to near level.
In the second half, a renewed Bristol ran in two more tries, Ravouvou scored his second and Joe Batley added another, before a late consolatory try from James Ramm completed the scores.
In the ninth minute, a Northampton penalty gave the Bears an opportunity to kick themselves to within five metres of their opponent's line, but the Saints did well to disrupt the driving maul and clear their lines.
Northampton worked their way down the field into the Bristol 22, where they won a penalty which was kicked to give them a 3-0 lead inside the opening quarter of an hour.
Bristol countered with an attack of their own but a remarkable piece of defending by Tom Seabrook held Steven Luatua up inside the Saints in goal area.
Less than a minute later the visitors extended their lead, Tom Pearson fed the ball to Hendy who stepped inside Rich Lane to dot down between the posts.
Pearson was the creator again in the 20th minute, the flanker broke through the Bristol defence before passing to Kemeny who dove over in the corner, making the score 15-0.
Ten minutes later the Bears struck back, the ball moved from left to right eventually coming to Ibitoye who ran the ball in for the hosts' first score.
AJ MacGinty kicked a challenging conversion to make the score 15-7.
Three minutes later they were in again, MacGinty ran a switch move with Ravouvou who broke through a hole in the Saints defence to score under the posts, reducing the deficit to just a point.
Late in the half, Curtis Langdon crossed the Bristol line but a miraculous cover tackle by Benjamin Grondona stopped the hooker placing the ball, preventing a try.
Directly from the goal line drop out, the hosts gave away a penalty for a high tackle on Henry Pollock which Northampton kicked to take the half time score to 18-14.
In the early stages of the second half Bristol had the ball for the majority of play, accumulating a number of phases deep in Saints territory but the visitors did well to weather the storm, preserving their lead.
In the 52nd minute, the Saints worked the ball into the Bears 22 before being turned over, allowing the Bears to unleash their counterattack; a brilliant break culminated in Luatua carrying the ball to within 15 metres of the Northampton line.
After a few phases, Ravouvou ran a hard line to crash over, scoring his second of the evening and giving the hosts the lead for the first time in the match.
The Bears earned a penalty in the 67th minute after an off feet infringement by Alex Coles, the penalty was kicked by MacGinty to extend the Bristol lead to 24-18.
Two minutes later, Batley crossed the whitewash for the Bears bonus point score after a brilliant Benjamin Elizalde carry down the left wing got the Southwestern side in behind the Saints defence.
MacGinty converted the second rowers try to take the score to 31-18.
The free flowing Bristolian rugby continued as they worked their way up the pitch with some lovely play, including a MacGinty cross field kick to Batley but after numerous phases, a knock on gave possession to the visitors with less than five minutes to play.
Moments later, Harry Thacker retrieved his own grubber kick in behind to get the Bears into an attacking area, the ball came wide to Elizalde but the Argentinian was tackled into touch by Hendy.
In the last minute of the game Northampton scored a wonderful try, Rory Hutchinson carried through a hole in the Bristol defence and exploded into space before throwing a huge pass to Ramm on the right wing to dive over in the corner.
Makepeace-Cubitt's conversion hammered off the post, preventing his side from gaining a bonus point, as the game finished 31-23, giving the Bears their first win at Ashton Gate this season.
BRISTOL BEARS: 31
TRIES: 4 (Ibitoye 30', Ravouvou 33', 56', Batley 69')
CONVERSIONS: 4 (MacGinty 31', 34' 57', 70')
PENALTIES: 1 (MacGinty 68')
DROP GOALS: 0
YELLOW CARDS: 0
RED CARDS: 0
15. Rich Lane 14. Jack Bates 13. Kalaveti Ravouvou 12. Benhard Janse van Rensburg 11. Gabriel Ibitoye 10. AJ MacGinty 9. Kieran Marmion 1. Jake Woolmore 2. Gabriel Oghre 3. Max Lahiff 4. James Dun 5. Joe Batley 6. Steven Luatua 7. Benjamin Grondona 8. Fitz Harding (c)
Replacements
16. Harry Thacker 17. Yann Thomas 18. George Kloska 19. Joe Owen 20. Jake Heenan 21. Sam Wolstenholme 22. Sam Worsley 23. Benjamin Elizalde
NORTHAMPTON SAINTS: 23
TRIES: 3 (Hendy 18', Kemeny 6', Ramm 80')
CONVERSIONS: 1 (Makepeace-Cubitt 19')
PENALTIES: 2 (Makepeace-Cubitt 15', 40')
DROP GOALS: 0
YELLOW CARDS: 0
RED CARDS: 0
15. George Hendy 14. James Ramm 13. Tom Litchfield 12. Rory Hutchinson 11. Tom Seabrook 10. George Makepeace-Cubitt 9. Tom James 1. Tom West 2. Curtis Langdon 3. Elliot Millar Mills 4. Temo Mayanavanua 5. Alex Coles (c) 6. Josh Kemeny 7. Tom Pearson 8. Henry Pollock
Replacements
16. Craig Wright 17. Emmaunuel Iyogun 18. Luke Green 19. Gavin Thornbury 20. Angus Scott-Young 21. Archie McParland 22. Charlie Savala 23. Jake Garside
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