Bristol Bears made it four Premiership wins on the bounce with another statement performance at Ashton Gate, seeing off Harlequins 51-26 on Sunday in Round 20 of the season.
The Bears scored seven tries in all with Harry Thacker and Charles Piutau both recording braces and Gabriel Ibitoye, Semi Radradra and Harry Randall all crossing the line. AJ MacGinty added 11 points from the tee before James Williams took over kicking responsibilities to add five points from a penalty and conversion.
Harlequins flanker Jack Kenningham also scored a brace with a pair of close-range drives while wingers Josh Bassett and Cadan Murley ensured the visitors to Ashton Gate returned home with an attacking bonus point, the latter coming by way of an interception from a Sam Bedlow pass.
South West rugby writer John Evely takes a closer look at the individual performances from the Bristol Bears…
15. Charles Piutau - 10
It was another wonderful display from the Bears full-back who is almost a barometer of how the team are performing. The former All Black’s dancing feet made defenders look foolish at times and there really are just a handful of players in the world game with his sort of offloading ability. A stunning explosive handoff fend with the right hand and then one handed out the back offload with the left put Ibitoye away for a try in the first half.
After the break Piutau showed his finishing prowess as first he picked his moment to join the line and take a flat pass from Harry Randall to explode over the whitewash.
His second try of the night was even more special, taking a long pass from Radradra and then opting to run over Nick David to score.
Footwork, power, world-class hands - how do you stop him in this regal, ankle ruining form?
14. Siva Naulago - 7
The Fijian winger had an early try disallowed for a knock on as he stripped the ball but quickly rebounded to play a key role in a try straight off the training ground. Attacking from a line out Thacker took the ball off the top and raced around on a curving arc, Naulago came thundering on a straight line in the opposite direction on a perfect dummy line to pull the attention of a couple of defenders which allowed Thacker to keep the ball and slice through the visitors’ midfield untouched.
13. Semi Radradra - 9
The Fijian centre was named man of the match at he looks to have found his fifth gear again which some had feared had been lost during those two knee surgeries. On Sunday he was constantly opting to attack the outside edge with his pace and had phenomenal success doing so.
His first half try was all about the intelligent line be picked, straightening up as MacGinty drifted across to take a short pass at full speed to barrel over.
A terrific, defence terrifying display with plenty of hard yards earned as well as doing the flashy stuff.
12. James Williams - 8
The former Harpury man ended up playing in the backrow as he continues to flourish in this Bristol side. Once again he provided the perfect mix of power and playmaking ability at inside centre for Bears, choosing when to take the ball on himself and when to pass perfectly. In defence he dealt with the threat of Andre ‘The Giant’ Esterhuizen so well that he was barely a factor in the game.
Praising Williams post-match, Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam said: “James is the ultimate team mate and that is what I love about him and saw in him. He is very intelligent and he knows what his game is and what we need from him and he delivers. He is very composed and the boys are enjoying him being here.”
11. Gabriel Ibitoye - 9
The delight in scoring again his former side was clear to see as Ibitoye had one of his best games for the club since arriving in the summer for the Tel Aviv Heat. He hugged his wing to provide width as Bristol attacked to take an offload from Piutau before cutting in to leave the over-committed Quins defenders completely wrong-footed.
So much more powerful than a player of his stature should be which seemed to catch the visitors by surprise as Ibitoye repeatedly pumped his legs in contact to make cheap extra yards.
10. AJ MacGinty - 9
Lam with be praying MacGinty’s knee injury is nothing serious as the USA international has really grown into the number 10 jersey at the Bears having joined from Sale in the summer. His kicking off the tee was impeccable on Sunday, landing five out of five efforts for 11 points including a couple of challenging wide efforts and came up with a simple but effective assist for Radradra’s try, picking the right pass in the right moment and executing it perfectly.
9. Harry Randall - 8
The buzz around the press room at Ashton Gate after watching England get destroyed by France on Saturday in the Six Nations is it is time to reconsider an international recall for Randall who in this type of form is one of the most dangerous scrum halves in the Premiership. His opposite number at Ashton Gate, Danny Care, is often singled out pre-match by directors of rugby as Quins’ danger man who needs containing but it was the Bears number nine who shone brightest at Ashton Gate.
A sniping try from close range was the icing on the cake of a fine individual display as he injected pace into the game.
1. Yann Thomas - 8
The Bristolian prop might not have dynamism of Ellis Genge who was away captaining England for the first time at Twickenham but he is a brilliantly reliable Premiership operator to call upon and largely neutralised the threat of the quite frankly massive Wilco Louw.
2. Harry Thacker - 9
Post-match the hooker said “I am really enjoying my rugby at the moment,” and quite frankly no wonder. Bears fans are crying out for their explosive frontrower to be in the England mix as he continues to shine for the club, dotting down a brace of tries on Sunday. The first came from the back of a maul that was spun down the blindside, the second from a setpiece training park lineout move which completely bamboozled the Harlequins defence and saw Thacker glide through a gap in midfield untouched.
There is no other hooker quite like him in professional rugby at the moment.
3. Max Lahiff - 8
The tighthead prop continues to shine in the absence of Kyle Sinckler who is on Six Nations duty, anchoring in the scrum and making his tackles with a couple of nice carries in the loose. Even Joe Marler’s introduction four minutes into the second half had little effect on Bristol’s scrum with their scrum coach Adam Jones, who was sat next to me in the press box, furious as calls from referee Adam Leal continued to go against his side at the setpiece battle.
4. Joe Batley - 8
The athletic second row was going well before he suffered a knee injury which saw him replaced in the first half by Joe Joyce. A weekend off might just have come at the perfect time for the athletic lock who will want to be involved at Welford Road next up having spent a period on loan at Leicester.
5. Chris Vui - 7
The lock put in a monster shift, carrying hard to get Bristol on the front foot and showing some deft touches to keep the ball moving quicker than the Harlequins defence could deal with, notably acting as the pivot man to pull the ball back in the build-up to Piutau’s first try. A couple of errors taking restarts lowered his score.
6. Steven Luatua - 8
What a privilege it is for Lam to be able to replace a player of Sam Jeffries calibre with a former All Black like Luatua who had recovered from his around the world trip back to New Zealand to play the role of the ultimate link man for the Bears. Luatua is the oil in the gears of this side, linking play as a runner, a top lineout option and providing quick clean ball at the rucks. His explosive clear out at a ruck following a strong Chris Vui carry in the second half, blew away the Harlequins defence to open a gap for Randall to snipe through.
7. Fitz Harding - 9
The openside flanker was everywhere once again at Ashton Gate as he used his physicality and long arms to bump off and hand off attempted tacklers and then great hands to offload, notably doing so in the build-up to Ibitoye’s try.
8. Magnus Bradbury - 8
While the Scottish international didn’t catch the eye with some of the wide breaks we have become accustomed to he was the focal point of the attack when someone needed to make the hard yards on Sunday which sucked in the defence and allowed others to flourish.
Replacements:
16. Bryan Byrne - 8
17. Jake Woolmore - 7
18. George Kloska - 8
19. Joe Joyce - 8
20. Jake Heenan - 6
21. Andy Uren - 7
22. Sam Bedlow - 6
23. Ioan Lloyd - 8
