Joe Joyce will wake up in cold sweats for months to come after blowing the chance for a famous last-minute win against Saracens.
In the 79th minute, 10th place Bristol Bears trailed Saracens 27-23 at the stunning Tottenham Hotspur Stadium having gone toe to toe with the Gallagher Premiership's second-place side.
Saracens had scored three tries through former Bristol man Max Malins, Elliot Daly and Nick Tompkins, but the Bears were in touch thanks to first-half scores from Piers O’Conor, Antoine Frisch and Tiff Eden who all impressed despite being largely supporting cast members to bigger name players this season.
In the closing moments Bristol had the ball in their hands deep in their half, lock Dave Attwood - who also went 80 minutes again - powered through a tackle on a burst down the left wing.
Smart handling saw the ball go through seven pairs of Bristol hands before reaching Joyce 10 metres inside his own half. The lock, who is the epitome of the improvement the Bears have made under Lam, put his head down and ran away from centre Nick Tompkins, dummied scrum half Aled Davies and ran infield to go deep into the Saracens 22 before approaching last defender Elliot Daly.
Joyce pumped to pass to Jack Bates on his outside but took another couple of strides before giving the ball and it proved costly as the pill came out of his hands forward to the young winger to deny him, the Bears and Arsenal fan Joyce a moment of glory.
It was a failure to execute under pressure that so perfectly summed up the Bears' disappointing season so far.
After the match, Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam said: “I feel for Joycey - he is distraught.
"He did an unbelievable job to be in that position anyway, a second-rower in the 80th minute, to get there and create the opportunity and it would have been a great way to finish the game and get five points.
"But I am proud of the guys. We had a clear game plan with how we wanted to play the game and we put a lot of work into it and we are trying to build all parts of our game so we can really compete at the next level."
Bristol exploded out the blocks and opened the scoring with just over three minutes gone when the forwards moved them to within metres of the line before Harry Randall’s pass allowed Frisch to charge through the middle to score.
Eden’s conversion was simple, but Saracens soon levelled, with a long pass by Owen Farrell bouncing nicely for Ben Earl, who then sent Malins clear to score in the corner, with Farrell converting superbly from the touchline.
The Bears then went ahead for a second time after an overthrown Sarries line-out when Eden’s lovely offload put Frisch into space and his pass sent Piers O’Conor scampering away down the left.
Farrell then nudged Sarries ahead with two penalties in the space of five minutes, but Eden quickly ensured the Bears regained their advantage again with a kick of his own.
That lead was extended in the 37th minute when Eden gathered an overthrown Bristol line-out and send Frisch on a run that took him to within a metre of the line, with Eden following up to score off his offload.
Eden could not convert, however, and this proved important as Saracens levelled off the final play of a terrific first half.
The ball went through the hands of Farrell and Alex Goode before Alex Lozowski burst away down the left before timing his pass to allow Elliot Daly to jink past the last defender, and Farrell converted well again.
That left things tied at 20-20 at half-time, but it did not take Saracens long to hit the front after the restart as Goode passed to Malins and the winger shrugged off an attempted tackle to score his second try.
Sarries thought they had their bonus-point score when Nick Tompkins went through from Farrell’s offload but the ‘try’ was ruled out by a Billy Vunipola knock-on in the build-up.
Replacement fly-half Callum Sheedy then pulled Bristol back to within four points with a penalty, following a no-arms tackle on O’Conor by Farrell.
The Bears looked to have snatched victory in the last minute but the TMO correctly ruled out Bates' score.
Saracens: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Max Malins, 13 Alex Lozowski, 12 Nick Tompkins, 11 Elliot Daly, 10 Owen Farrell (c), 9 Aled Davies; 1 Richard Barrington, 2 Jamie George, 3 Vincent Koch, 4 Maro Itoje, 5 Nick Isiekwe, 6 Jackson Wray, 7 Ben Earl, 8 Billy Vunipola
Replacements: 16 Tom Woolstencroft, 17 Eroni Mawi, 18 Sam Wainwright, 19 Tim Swinson, 20 Andy Christie, 21 Ruben de Haas, 22 Duncan Taylor, 23 Sean Maitland
Bristol Bears: 15. Rich Lane, 14. Alapati Leiua, 13. Piers O’Conor, 12. Antoine Frisch, 11. Jack Bates, 10. Tiff Eden, 9. Harry Randall; 1. Jake Woolmore, 2. Harry Thacker, 3. Jake Armstrong, 4. Dave Attwood, 5. Joe Joyce (c), 6. Chris Vui, 7. Dan Thomas, 8. Fitz Harding.
Replacements: 16. Jake Kerr, 17. Yann Thomas, 18. John Afoa, 19. Sam Jeffries, 20. Max Green, 21. Callum Sheedy, 22. Semi Radradra, 23. Charles Piutau
Referee: Christophe Ridley (55th Premiership game).
Assistant Referees: Dan Jones and Wayne Falla.
TMO: Brian MacNeice (IRFU).
Citing Officer: Chris Sharp
