Bristol fight back to overcome feisty Newcastle

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption,

Matias Moroni was among six try scorers for Bristol 11 days after signing a permanent deal with the club

BySophie Hurcom

BBC Sport England

The Prem

Bristol (12) 36

Tries: Rees-Zammit 2, Moroni, Heward, Ravouvou, Oghre Cons: Jordan 2, Williams

Newcastle (17) 27

Tries: McCallum, Spencer 2, Leatherbarrow Cons: Connon 2 Pens: Connon

Bristol Bears' second-half strength saw them overcome Newcastle 36-27 as the Red Bulls saw a chance to end their wait for a Prem win slip through their fingers.

The victory sees Bristol move up to second in the table before the remaining weekend games, with Louis Rees-Zammit crossing twice and Matias Moroni, Kalaveti Ravouvou, Noah Heward and Gabriel Oghre also scoring.

Newcastle led for most of the time until the 56-minute mark, and left with their first point of the campaign after an impressive Oli Spencer double, plus tries from Murray McCallum and Ollie Leatherbarrow, earned them a try bonus point.

But the dam burst once the hosts nudged ahead and while Bristol indiscipline saw them finish with 13 players on the field, they had enough to clinch their fifth win in their past six Prem games and confine Newcastle to a 19th consecutive Prem loss.

After showing signs of promise during the first half of their defeat by Bath six days ago and with two European Challenge Cup wins under their belt this month, Red Bulls came out fast, playing Bristol at their own high-speed attacking game.

McCallum barrelled over on six minutes to cap a slick passage of varied attacking play, before Spencer made it 10-0 as the winger scooped the ball off the ground and dived past Ravouvou to touch down with one hand.

Bristol showed how quickly they can turn things around though with two tries in two minutes as space opened for Rees-Zammit, who had time to raise his arm in the air before diving over for the first.

The Welshman, playing at full-back, was almost instantly through again but although he was held as he punched a hole in Newcastle's defence, he passed to Moroni on his shoulder to run in.

Newcastle still had the final word of the half when Leatherbarrow powered under the posts as Red Bulls charged forward in numbers to make it 17-12.

Brett Connon's penalty stretched the visitors' lead to 20-12 early in the second half and it signalled time for Bears boss Pat Lam to start ringing the changes, which quickly paid off as replacement Oghre and Heward exchanged passes for the latter to score.

Newcastle struck once more as Sammy Arnold made the line break, Alex Hearle slipped through two defenders and Spencer on his outside added his second for their bonus-point score.

But Bristol's fresh legs - led by a rampaging Ellis Genge - pushed them clear with three tries in 10 minutes.

Ravouvou ran in on the overlap, Rees-Zammit skipped past three Newcastle players for his second and Oghre scored following a driving maul, with Batley's 20-minute red card for head contact in a tackle the only major blot on their day.

'Our quality cam through at the end' - reaction

Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam told BBC Radio Bristol:

"A hard-earned five points, well done to Newcastle they really took it to us. We made changes in the group and we weren't really getting front-foot ball, they slowed our ball up but a lot of quality came through at the end.

"It's good to get the five points and most importantly with the six-day turnaround to Sale [on 2 January] we've freshened up a few of the boys that didn't play today.

"It was one of those games where again we would score then we'd let them in, we knew they scored most of their tries if they get in there so we talked about nothing for free. Some of the penalties that we were getting pinged for which put them in there at the beginning were certainly questionable but we've got to look at ourselves.

"What was frustrating us was a lot of our line breaks they were allowed to come clearly offside in stopping some of those plays but I loved the way the boys stayed in and managed the last 10 minutes, and with 13, 14 men got the five points."

Newcastle Red Bulls head coach Alan Dickens told BBC Radio Newcastle:

"Something we talked a lot about coming into this game was momentum.

"Against Bath we had the momentum in the first half and then we lost it, so that was something we talked about - if we do lose it, how do we get it back?

"Certainly after we scored the fourth try in the second half, Bristol had a purple patch, but we did wrestle back the momentum towards the back end of that second half.

"Granted it was a little bit of ill discipline from them that resulted in a 20-minute red card which gave us possession and then territory and we were able to pressure Bristol, but not score again to make it a tighter finish.

"When the facets of our game do come together for 60 to 80 minutes we're going to put in a good performance. Gloucester next week is another opportunity to put our best version on the pitch and that's what we want to do."

Bristol: Rees-Zammit; Heward, Moroni, Williams, Ravouvou; Jordan, Randall; Lahiff, Thacker, Chawatama; Taylor, Batley, Owen, Harding (c), Mata.

Replacements: Oghre, Genge, Halliwell, Rubiolo, Ivanishvili, Wolstenholme, Worsley, Lane.

Sin bin: Kalaveti Ravouvou (77)

Red card 20 mins: Batley (66)

Newcastle: Grayson; Spencer, Hearle, Arnold, Obatoyinbo; Connon, Benitez Cruz; Brocklebank, McGuigan (c), McCallum; Usher, De Chaves, Gordon, Christie, Leatherbarrow.

Replacements: Fletcher, Hancock, Palframan, Baker, Mafi, Elliott, Hutchison, Chamberlain.

Referee: George Selwood