Let’s not beat around the bush, Friday night’s performance at Newcastle was a shocker. In fact, It felt like Halloween had come a month early and the ghosts of last season had come back to haunt us all over again.
Like all good horror movies it’s the hope that kills you as a fan. The hope that the table-topping Bears would comfortably beat the basement side. The hope that we’d at long last managed to get the basics right this season. And the hope that despite not playing well, a 10-minute spell against 13 men would see the Bears conjure up a comeback win. Alas it was not meant to be.
For once I have to take issue with Pat Lam who described the Newcastle performance as “phenomenal”. Don’t get me wrong they played well, but let’s be frank, in reality they were gifted this victory by our mistakes.
In the last year we’ve witnessed a few poor performances. But in the main, the boys had always battled hard, you could see the passion in their play and the hurt in defeat.
But Friday seemed different. It was flat. There was a malaise across our entire team. It was a zombie-like performance. Was there a man of the match for Bristol on the plastic pitch of Kingston Park? You could make a case for a couple of players, but it would seem a hollow accolade to present.
Although it was another defeat mid week against Exeter in the Premiership Cup, this was against a more physical and clinical Chiefs team. A young Cubs team brimming with Academy talent gave a glimpse of the next generation of first-team Bears.
I was particularly impressed with the trio of Joe Owen, Ed Harvey and Joe Jenkins. Owen a tall and hard-tackling lock, Harvey a No8 packed full of determination and Jenkins a hard-running centre who grabbed a brace of tries. Let’s hope they continue to develop at pace to build the local production line of talent that is so essential for clubs to flourish in these cash-strapped times.
Finally it was great to see Andy Uren committing his future to his hometown team and the mouth-watering prospect that Max Malins may be on his way back to Bristol.
You can listen to Bears Beyond The Gate on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Spotify and BuzzSprout
You can listen to Bears Beyond the Gate on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Spotify and Buzzsprout
