Bristol Bears are finding a way to win so far during the 2022/23 Gallagher Premiership and on Saturday beat Wasps 23-8 away from home to go second in the early Premiership table.
Callum Sheedy recorded an 18-point haul, joining Magnus Bradbury in scoring a try at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
Wasps scored a try in just the fifth minute of the game when hooker Tom Cruse went over in the corner from a floated pass from fly-half Charlie Atkinson who was unable to add the conversion but did strike a penalty after the break having missed a sitter before half time.
South West rugby writer John Evely takes a look at some of the key points from the game and heading into Bristol's Round Three game at home to London Irish…
READ MORE: Wasps Rugby 8-23 Bristol Bears LIVE: Reaction, injury latest and match report from away win
A rare full house
Callum Sheedy became just the second Bristol player to record a full house in the Premiership. A full house of course is scoring a try, penalty, conversion and drop goal and he did so on the way to notching up an 18-point haul which took him beyond the 1000-point milestone for the club, becoming just the eighth player to do so in first team games.
The only other Bristol player to achieve a full house in the Premiership was South African Henry Honiball against Bath back in 2000.
The last player to do it for the club was Adrian Jarvis back in 2010 in the Championship against London Welsh.
The sad news is it was a long way from being a full house inside the stadium on Saturday with less than a third of the ground full in a slightly worrying trend across the Premiership in the early rounds of the season.
Jordan Crane’s defence gets all the praise
Bristol’s defence is by no means water-tight yet, but it is heroic, fierce and got the job done for a second week in a row.
The Bears missed 34 tackles at the Coventry Building Society Arena on Saturday, that is a lot by any standard, and had Wasps not come up with a horrendous 19 handling errors the scoreline could have looked very different, but the 218 successful tackles to Wasps' 86 tells a story of the effort the away side put in to come away with their first away win against Wasps in nearly 22 years.
Post match, Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam said: “We are two from two, it hasn’t been the free flowing games that we would like, but I think the stats come up, they only made 80 and we made 220 tackles and that’s some serious character because you can see they have got some serious threats.
“But massive credit to the work Jordan Crane [defence coach] is doing.
“The biggest thing for us is connected defence, team defence, rather than - I would say a lot of times last year we were flying out of the line, we were trying to solve it as individuals, but we have put a lot of work into staying connected and that’s worked well I think”
In terms of the stats, Wasps were dominant. Bristol had just 37 percent possession, 31 percent territory and made a measly 273m in attack to Wasps 579. But they found a way to win.
Lam said: “We don’t want the opposition to have lots of ball, but at least we have got the confidence that if we don’t have it for whatever reason, we have got some serious culture to hang in there”
And talking about character and culture
If we include pre-season, Bristol Bears have now comeback from being behind to win in four games in a row, beating Dragons, Scarlets, Bath and now Wasps along the way.
One difference between this season and last, when the Bears finished a disappointing 10th in the Premiership, is their efficiency after making a line break.
In 2021/22 Bristol made more line breaks than any other side in the league but failed to capitalise on them, this season the passing in the critical moments has been far sharper, as displayed with the club's two tries against Wasps - both essentially from set-piece launches off the training field with Sheedy scoring from a blindside attack from a scrum and Bradbury going over from a lineout move.
Winger competition heating up
Summer signing Gabriel Ibitoye was an interesting travelling reserve amongst those warming up on the CBS Arena pitch pre-match.
The former Harlequins man’s debut a the club has been put on hold by a quad-strain in pre-season but his involvement on Saturday signals he is near a return.
Elsewhere in the wing ranks, academy product Jack Bate got the nod over Rich Lane and Henry Purdy against Wasps with former three-cap Wallabies international Luke Morahan making his 100th appearance for the club on the other flank.
Morahan has reached that total making 92 starts, 8 as a replacement with 46 tries in 81 league games, five cup ties and 14 European matches. That is some strike rate.
Sadly Bates’ game lasted just two minutes after he suffered a head injury and then failed a HIA so he will be unavailable this week with the league’s concussion protocols now ensuring players have at least a 12 day lay-off.
Toby Fricker, who finished last season in storming form, is something of a forgotten man this season and could well get a chance to play his way back into the spotlight in the Premiership Rugby Cup games.
Ellis Genge set to return for London Irish
England star Ellis Genge sat out this weekend’s trio to Coventry as part of his rest programme agreed with England and the RFU after a barnstorming, two try, man of the match performance in the 31-29 win against Bath.
But the good news for fans planning to head to Ashton Gate this weekend is the loosehead is set to return to reunite his partnership with fellow England star Kyle Sinckler who was pivotal to Bristol’s win against Wasps with a dominant scrummaging display.
Bristol’s backrow options looking threadbare
Pat Lam might have to dip into his famous database of available players this week as the club’s resources at backrow are looking very thin following injuries to recent signing Sam Lewis [ankle] and Sam Jeffries [hamstring] against Wasps. Both will be assessed further in the coming days but are certainly in significant doubt to face Exiles, joining the injured Steven Luatua and Fitz Harding.
It was a bruising encounter all round with Joe Joyce and Magnus Bradbury also appearing to take knocks while Kyle Sinckler got repeated treatment on his neck throughout the match
The good news regarding the backrow is Bristol Live understand Dan Thomas is likely to be passed fit this week having rolled his ankle in pre-season against the Dragons. That would leave Lam with the Welsh openside, skipper Jake Heenan, Scotland international Bradbury and Chris Vui as prime options to start in the backrow, with John Hawkins another option
The Premiership Cup match against Exeter Chiefs in midweek on September 28th could be troublesome but Lam will cross that bridge when it comes with senior academy players Macenzzie Duncan and Aaron Tull likely to be involved.
Interestingly two Bristol players who left the club at the end of their contracts in June, Mitch Eadie and Nathan Hughes, have been been on the sidelines for their former side's games this season. Bristolian Eadie, who has joined Hartpury, was watching from near the dugout against Dragons and Japan-bound Nathan Hughes was even on the pitch post-match after the Premiership opener.
Both men certainly know Bristol's systems if a quick fix is needed.
