Champions Cup: Harry Randall shines as Bristol beat Stade Francais

Harry Randall did his Six Nations hopes no harm after producing a scintillating display in Bristol Bears’ 28-17 Champions Cup victory over Stade Francais.

Randall, who has only recently come back from injury, was superb, setting up the first try as the West Country outfit went into the break 14-7 ahead.

Henry Purdy was the recipient of the scrum-half’s good work before Piers O’Conor gave them a 14-point buffer.

Although Stade responded via Leo Barre, a brilliant individual score from Randall and a second try from O’Conor sealed the win for the Bears.

The French outfit briefly raised hopes of a comeback when Antoine Burban touched down, but the hosts comfortably held on.

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Joe Joyce led out Bristol on his 150th appearance for the club but the visitors were first to threaten when Telusa Veainu powered down the right flank and it took an excellent cover tackle from Callum Sheedy to haul the wing down.

Bristol began at a high tempo with Semi Radradra having a number of touches in the opening 15 minutes but the home side lacked the accuracy to make it count with ill-directed passes and frequent turnovers being features of their play.

However, the Bears sprung into life when they were awarded a penalty in their half. Randall took it quickly to rip the defence apart before sending Purdy in under the posts.

That was the only score of this first quarter but a minute later, Stade Francais had a chance to come onto the board but Nicolas Sanchez missed a penalty from 45 metres.

An excellent touch-finder from Randall put the hosts in a strong position and a well-rehearsed line-out move saw Dan Thomas and Randall create a try for O’Conor.

On the stroke of half-time the visitors secured their first try when Bristol dithered to allow Barre to race on to a chip ahead and score. A simple conversion from Sanchez left his side trailing 14-7 at the interval.

Seven minutes after the restart Sanchez kicked a penalty but Bristol’s nerves were calmed when the livewire Randall scored as once again he took a quick penalty from 10 metres out before evading two defenders to touchdown.

Bristol sealed victory when Luke Morahan broke out of defence to run 40 metres to provide O’Conor with an easy run-in for his second and pick up a bonus point.

Stade Francais remained spirited and were rewarded when replacement Burban forced his way over from close range but they came away with nothing and look set to exit the tournament at an early stage.