A downbeat Pat Lam branded his Bristol Bears side naïve to throw away a nine point lead with five minutes remaining to lose to a 83rd minute try from Saracens winger Francois Hougaard.
South African Hougaard rounded off a spell of relentless pressure that broke a resilient Bristol and claimed a 20-19 win at the StoneX Stadium for Saracens.
It was league leaders Saracens’ 12th Premiership win of the season, but Bristol remain rooted at the basement, having lost eight from their last 10 league games.
The visitors led by nine points midway through the final quarter, yet wing Rotimi Segun followed up hooker Theo Dan’s earlier try with Saracens’ second touchdown, before Hougaard struck, while full-back Alex Goode kicked a penalty and conversion.
Hooker Harry Thacker and wing Gabriel Ibitoye touched down for Bristol, with centre James Williams kicking two penalties and fly-half AJ MacGinty one.
While Lam did not directly throw replacement scrum half Andy Uren under the bus on his 150th senior appearance for the club, it was the scrum's decision to box kick the ball away with a four point lead and 75 second left to play which had the Bristol director of rugby spitting feathers.
Possession is everything at that stage of the contest.
Then, having kicked the ball away, Bristol doubled, and then tripled down on their errors with a series of costly penalties. First Magnus Bradbury was pinged for not releasing as he competed for a turnover 10m into the Saracens half to allow Goode to kick long for a lineout. Uren then strayed offside on the edge of his 22 to allow the marauding Saracens to ride a wave of momentum and kick to the corner. Playing with a penalty advantage after Bristol illegally collapsed the maul set from the 5m lineout handed the hosts a no risk chance to attack and quick hands put former Wasps man Hougaard over in the corner to the visible despair of the away side, with players left slumped and disbelieving strewn across the StoneX pitch while the stadium erupted around them.
Lam said: "We are pretty disappointed. It was a massive effort and we had a few chances we didn’t take but with nine points to defend with five minutes remaining we should have done that.
"We have just talked about that as a group - it was pretty naïve.
"Even when they scored they needed the ball back to score again and us kicking the ball away [through the boot of Uren] was pretty naïve.
"There were some poor decisions with defensive reads and giving them penalty after penalty, we are pretty disappointed with that. "
In an all too familiar story the Bears impressed before they were undone, leading 8-0 at half time at a ground they have never won at.
Lam reflected: "We knew we were getting on top of them, the game plan was working as we wanted, we were mauling them and trying to tire them out and get on top of them. It could have been a lot more than 8-0 at half time but we knew we were on op of them and if we kept applying the pressure we could win.
"When we got it to 19-10, we should have brought that home, so we are pretty gutted and we have only got ourselves to blame but we have just got to get going again.
He continued: "The fight from our guys was good, even when Saracens got the ball back in the last minutes they had to work really hard for the try, that shows the character of our guys, but unfortunately in rugby if a couple of guys make poor decisions everyone else has to work and they were good enough to win in the end.
"Gutted is the word for us. We picked up one point, we are desperately annoyed we didn’t pick up four but we will just come back in a few weeks against Newcastle."
In theory Saracens were at their most vulnerable this season in terms of selection, without their sizeable England contingent away ahead of next weekend’s Guinness Six Nations kick-off.
Bristol skipper Steven Luatua returned from injury, while Ibitoye was recalled on the wing and Williams made a first Premiership start.
Bristol, despite starting the game 31 points behind Saracens in the table, gave as good as they got during fast and furious initial exchanges, and MacGinty kicked them into a 12th-minute lead after Thacker charged down an attempted defensive clearance.
Saracens were disjointed and untidy, with Bristol monopolising territory as strong-running backs Semi Radradra and Siva Naulago tried to make headway.
Radradra breached Saracens’ defence midway through the half, touching down one-handed, but referee Anthony Woodthorpe disallowed the try following a knock-on by Bristol full-back Rich Lane.
Lane was involved in the action again 10 minutes before half-time, but he could not finish off a thrilling move started by Radradra, conceding a penalty instead following a double movement close to Saracens’ line.
Saracens were not helped by a horribly-misfiring lineout, yet Bristol failed to punish their opponents despite setting up camp inside the home team’s 22.
A handful of chances went astray before Bristol finally claimed the try their dominance warranted when a lineout drive ended in Thacker claiming his sixth Premiership touchdown of the season, and the league strugglers led 8-0 at half-time.
Thacker went off at half-time, being replaced by Bryan Byrne, and Bristol were immediately on the back foot as a Goode penalty attempt hit the post and Vunipola began making considerable ground through his trademark power.
But Saracens’ set-piece continued to malfunction, with Bristol gaining a long-range penalty chance that Williams accepted to put them 11 points clear midway through the third quarter before a Goode strike opened Saracens’ account.
Williams then found his range again, landing a second successful penalty from just inside Saracens’ half, and it generated a response with Bristol’s defence finally breached after 58 minutes.
In a carbon-copy of Bristol’s try, Saracens drove a lineout and it was Dan who touched down, and Goode’s conversion cut the deficit to four points.
It was a worrying spell for Bristol as Saracens strived to wipe out their advantage, yet the visitors moved back upfield and delivered a second try nine minutes from time.
The source was another attacking lineout, although Bristol moved possession wide on this occasion, with Ibitoye finishing off after receiving Radradra’s pass.
There seemed no way back for Saracens after that, despite Segun’s late score, and Bristol looked as though they would be able to celebrate a rare Premiership victory on the road – but Hougaard gate-crashed their party.
Saracens: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Rotimi Segun, 13 Alex Lozowski, 12 Duncan Taylor, 11 Alex Lewington, 10 Manu Vunipola, 9 Aled Davies; 1 Robin Hislop, 2 Theo Dan, 3 Christian Judge, 4 Andrew Kitchener, 5 Hugh Tizard, 6 Andy Christie, 7 Jackson Wray (c), 8 Billy Vunipola.
Replacements: 16 Kapeli Pifeleti, 17 Eroni Mawi, 18 Alec Clarey, 19 Cameron Boon, 20 Tom Ellis, 21 Ivan van Zyl, 22 Nick Tompkins, 23 Francois Hougaard
Bristol Bears: 15. Rich Lane, 14. Siva Naulago, 13. Semi Radradra, 12. James Williams, 11. Gabriel Ibitoye, 10. AJ MacGinty, 9. Harry Randall; 1. Yann Thomas, 2. Harry Thacker, 3. Max Lahiff, 4. Joe Batley, 5. Chris Vui, 6. Steven Luatua (c), 7. Jake Heenan, 8. Magnus Bradbury
Replacements: 16. Bryan Byrne, 17. Jake Woolmore, 18. Jonathan Benz-Salomon, 19. Ed Holmes, 20. Fitz Harding, 21. Andy Uren, 22. Callum Sheedy, 23. Jack Bates.
Referee: Anthony Woodthorpe (18 th Premiership game).
Assistant Referees: Simon Harding and Jamie Leahy.
TMO: Stuart Terheege.
Citing Officer: Buster White.
