Bristol Bears picked up their first win of the 2022/23 season at the second time of asking with a 45-28 pre-season triumph against the Dragons at Rodney Parade.
The English side crossed seven times in all on Friday night, with Henry Purdy scoring a brace of tries and Bryan Byrne, Rich Lane, Will Capon, James Williams and Harry Randall all touching down.
Angus O’Brien, Ollie Griffiths and Sean Lonsdale grabbed first half tries as the Dragons’ impressive handling saw them take a deserved lead into the break, added to by hooker Bradley Roberts shortly after the restart.
But Bristol well and truly won the final quarter of the contest to go into next week’s final pre-season fixture away at fellow Welsh URC side the Scarlets with confidence.
Here are rugby writer John Evely’s flash scores from the pre-season game....
Bristol Bears:
15. Luke Morahan - 7
14. Jack Bates - 6
13. Joe Jenkins - 7
12. James Williams - 6
11. Rich Lane - 8
10. Callum Sheedy - 7
9. Tom Whiteley - 7
1. Jake Woolmore 6
2. Bryan Byrne - 7
3. Jonathan Benz-Salomon - 6
4. Morgan Eames - 7
5. Joe Owen - 6
6. John Hawkins - 6
7. Jake Heenan © - 7
8. Magnus Bradbury - 7
Replacements:
Will Capon - 7
Yann Thomas - 6
George Kloska - N/A
Max Lahiff - 7
Ed Holmes - 6
Dan Thomas - 6
Sam Lewis - 7
Harry Randall - 6
Andy Uren - N/A
AJ MacGinty - 7
Henry Purdy - 9
Ioan Lloyd - 7
