Leicester Tigers v Bristol Bears: Five takeaways as ‘no post-Six Nations blues’ in the PREM with England star one of several outstanding performers
Leicester Tigers forward Ollie Chessum and Bristol Bears flanker Fitz Harding.
Following a 33-19 victory for Leicester Tigers over Bristol Bears, here are our five takeaways from the Gallagher PREM encounter at Mattioli Woods Welford Road on Sunday.
The top line
Leicester and Bristol produced a Sunday afternoon thriller as the Tigers moved above the Bears and into third following a fine victory at Welford Road.
In a match which swung back and forth, it was the hosts who opened a 14-0 advantage at the end of the first quarter through Joaquin Moro and Hanro Liebenberg tries before the West Country outfit hit back via Fitz Harding and Kalaveti Ravouvou.
A pair of Billy Searle penalties either side of the interval opened the gap once more, but Harding set up a grandstand finale when he completed his brace. However, tries from Izaia Perese and Gabriel Hamer-Webb secured the victory for the Midlanders and put them firmly in the title hunt.
Momentum
While it was an entertaining enough opening 15 minutes, neither team got any reward for their endeavour but, once the dam breaks, it all comes flooding through. No tries in 17 minutes became two in as many with Moro breaking the deadlock.
It was almost as if the switch had been flicked from the Tigers’ perspective after that first score and from the restart they moved the ball 70 metres downfield before Liebenberg became the second Leicester player to touch down.
The players and fans fed off the momentum and, when that happens at Welford Road, it is difficult to respond. It needed something special from the Bears to hit back but that’s what they got from Gabriel Ibitoye and Kalaveti Ravouvou.
They combined brilliantly to set up the position for Harding to reduce the arrears before the Fijian powerhouse fended off Ollie Chessum to cross the whitewash and repeat what Leicester had achieved by going over twice in two minutes.
It was very much a case of the respective teams taking advantage of those little moments and that’s what Leicester also managed to do late on. Bristol were still very much in control of the game, but the Tigers wrestled control of the encounter and won the game through another Searle penalty and tries from Perese and Hamer-Webb which sealed the bonus-point.
No post-Six Nations blues
While it has felt a bit ‘after the Lord Mayor’s show’ in the URC at times this weekend, that has certainly not been the case in the PREM. While some of the England players were not involved as clubs decide the best games to give them their mandatory rest, there was still plenty of star power.
Even if it was a slight disappointment not to see the likes of Henry Pollock, Fin Smith and Ellis Genge during this set of fixtures, that did not detract from the overall quality. Only one match was an absolute blowout and even then you could not help but marvel at the sheer brilliance of Bath.
This was another absolute humdinger which gave the fans value for money and showed that the domestic game in England is in rude health. It is just a shame that it has not been reflected by the national team over the past couple of months.
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Embracing the chaos and adapting
To some degree, it was a contrast of style – the set-piece-dominated Tigers against the all-singing, all-dancing approach from the Bears – but that is not distinctly true. Leicester have shown this season that they want to play and they were quite happy to trade blows with their opponents throughout the contest.
At times it was frenetic and that is what Bristol like, but Geoff Parling’s men have displayed their adaptability this season and can themselves thrive off unstructured play. In fact, it was the visitors who blinked first by tightening up their game at the start of the second period, something Pat Lam admitted during the early part of the half.
It was a tactic which got the West Country outfit back into the contest after they went 20-12 down and, when they got to within a single point, it looked like they would go on to claim the win. But while Bristol showed they can tighten things up, Leicester have historically been the masters of it and they managed to win the set-piece and physical battle in the latter stages, leading to them pulling away.
Star performers
Chessum eventually got the player of the match award but there were so many contenders in this fabulous advert for the PREM and the sport. In a fine pack display from the Tigers, Joaquin Moro, despite dropping the ball over the line, and Jamie Blamire were fantastic, while behind the scrum, Searle continued his incredible season.
The 29-year-old could be the definition of a rugby journeyman having had nine clubs on his CV before joining Leicester last year. Whatever it is, Searle seems to have found the magic formula this season and has gone from decent club player to absolutely top of the range pivot. It may never be enough to earn Test honours but his performances have deservedly been rewarded with an England A call-up and he was fantastic yet again on Sunday.
As for Bristol, there were a number of individuals who could count themselves unfortunate to be on the losing side. Harry Randall, as ever, was a livewire at scrum-half for the visitors while the aforementioned Ibitoye and Ravouvou were a constant menace to the Tigers defence.
Elsewhere, Benhard Janse van Rensburg was typically excellent in the midfield and Harding was superb in the back-row but their best was probably Gabriel Oghre, who was simply everywhere. England hooker is a position which may well be up for grabs following the World Cup and Oghre is putting himself firmly in the frame for it.