Pat Lam was left unhappy at the forensic search for foul play by the officials as Bristol Bears number eight Fitz Harding was yellow-carded for a high tackle in what proved to be the decisive moment of another 10-try thriller against Harlequins.
Having suffered early injuries to captain Steven Luatua and flanker Sam Jeffries, Bristol battled to hold a 29-26 lead in the 64th minute after tries from both injured Bears players, Dave Attwood and Bryan Byrne.
Quins had raced out to a 14-0 lead after a brace of tries from winger Caden Murley, the second a 70m run in from an interception from an ill-advised no-look pass from Harding.
The visitors, who beat Bristol 43-36 in last season’s Premiership play-off semi-finals, also crossed Tom Lawday, Hugh Tizard to be neck and neck with their rivals all game.
But in the 64th minute the most detailed TMO review of the season, which involved more than a dozen replays of Harding tackling Harlequins number eight Archie White - who had to leave the field for a HIA - concluded in the Bears’ dynamic number eight being shown yellow by referee Craig Maxwell-Keys.
The decision came following red cards for Exeter’s Tom Hendrickson in Chiefs’ defeat to Worcester Warriors yesterday, marching orders for London Irish centre Curtis Rona in the Exiles’ loss to Leicester Tigers, and early red card for lock Charlie Ewels in England’s Six Nations defeat to Ireland.
All three red cards resulted in the players’ team being beaten, and Harding’s sin-binning cost Bristol dearly as well with hooker Jack Walker touching down from a driving maul directly from a lineout from the penalty kick for the offence and then Luke Northmore touching down late in the game.
Northmore’s score stemmed from Bristol failing to keep control of the ball at an attacking scrum 5m out from the line, with Danny Care - who was also shown a yellow card before half time for disrupting the ball while off his feet with the Bears poised to score - disrupting at the back of the scrum in the absence of Harding and with inexperienced Theo Strang on.
Discussing the yellow card for Harding, Lam said: “It was a key moment.
“We will go back and have a look at it because there were four hits on us that were similar.
“There were four the TMOs wouldn’t look at so we will go through and do a comparison.
“I thought it was pretty forensic and it took ages. It is not good for the game.
“I thought it was indirect initially, even though it did hit the head.”
Having come into the match off the back of a derby loss to Bath last weekend after losing winger Siva Naulago to a red card for a high tackle on Will Butt in the first half, a clearly aggravated Lam added: “Last week I said openly Siva’s tackle was a red card and you run the risk when you go high, but this one the players have gone down low, they said the first contract was not directly to the head.
“The fact they slow everything down.
“It felt like three or four minutes it took to make the decision, it was raining and it was cold.
However, Lam admitted his side more than contributed to their own downfall once again.
He said: “Ultimately you have to give credit to Quins, they are a class side and they certainly deserved to win.”
Harlequins made a blistering start with Murley scoring two tries in the first four minutes. First full-back Tyrone Green counter-attacked from just outside his 22 and after a flowing 80-metre move, Green was on hand to send Murley flying over in the corner.
From the restart, Bristol secured possession only for Harding to throw out a wild pass which Murley collected inside his own half before racing in to score.
Bristol needed a quick response and they got one when Luatua performed heroics to hold off three defenders and force his way over but in the next passage of play, the skipper was injured and left the field with a wrist injury.
Before 12 minutes had elapsed a fourth try had arrived through Jeffries. He was injured in the process and hobbled off so Bristol had lost both their try-scoring back-rowers within three minutes of one another.
It was then Harlequins’ turn to lose a player when Green was helped off with a leg injury to be replaced by Louis Lynagh.
Despite that setback, the visitors extended their lead with a close-range try from Lawday after a dart from Danny Care had put the defence on the back foot.
Bristol drew level with the sixth try of the first quarter when Attwood rewarded bursts from Antoine Frisch and Harding to cross under the sticks.
The action slowed in the second quarter, though Tizard’s bonus-point try for Quins partially offset the loss of Murley through injury and Care to a yellow card.
Quins led 26-19 at the interval but in Care’s absence, Bristol were able to pick up the first try of the second half when Byrne rolled over from a line-out drive.
Care returned with no further damage done but Sheedy put Bristol in front for the first time with a penalty before the hosts introduced Piers O’Conor for his 100th appearance for the club.
Steady rain made the playing conditions more difficult so the game became more conservative but with 15 minutes remaining, Bristol lost Harding to the sin-bin for a high challenge.
It proved significant as Walker finished off a line-out drive and though O’Conor’s tremendous run spurred on Bristol, Quins just kept their line intact and broke out to seal victory when a well-judged kick from Care was miscontroled by Strang and seized upon by Northmore to leave any lingering Bristol hopes of a play-off place in tatters and even a run at Champions Cup qualification an uphill task.
Bristol Bears: 15. Rich Lane; 14. Alapati Leiua, 13. Semi Radradra, 12. Antoine Frisch, 11. Henry Purdy; 10. Callum Sheedy, 9. Max Green; 1. Yann Thomas, 2. Bryan Byrne, 3. Jake Armstrong, 4. Dave Attwood, 5. Chris Vui, 6. Steven Luatua (c), 7. Sam Jeffries, 8. Fitz Harding.
Replacements: 16. Jake Kerr, 17. Ashley Challenger, 18. John Afoa, 19. Joe Joyce, 20. Jake Heenan, 21. Theo Strang, 22. Tiff Eden, 23. Piers O’Conor.
Harlequins: 15. Tyrone Green, 14. Cadan Murley, 13. Huw Jones, 12. Andre Esterhuizen, 11. Oscar Beard, 10. Will Edwards, 9. Danny Care; 1. Simon Kerrod, 2. Jack Walker, 3. Will Collier, 4. Matt Symons, 5. Hugh Tizard, 6. Stephan Lewies - (C), 7. Tom Lawday, 8. Archie White.
Replacements : 16. Sam Riley, 17. Santiago Garcia Botta, 18. Wilco Louw, 19. George Hammond, 20. Luke Wallace, 21. Scott Steele, 22. Luke Northmore, 23. Louis Lynagh.
Referee: Craig Maxwell-Keys (110 th Premiership game).
Assistant Referees : Joe James and Paul Dix.
TMO: Dean Richards.
Citing Officer: Jay Curts.
