What a beautiful few days it was in Bristol this weekend with the sun shining, daffodils blooming and people sitting outside enjoying the spring sunshine. And if you were a Bears fan the weekend started perfectly with a resounding victory over our nearest and dearest from Bath.
The 61-19 victory was the biggest winning margin in the 250 competitive games between these old foes. I’m sure Bath fans will say it was "only the Premiership Cup" and wasn’t that important, while deep down seething that a season of disappointment had just recorded another new low.
A rampant first 40 minutes saw the Bears scoring at will, absolutely shredding the Bath defence. It was like watching a cross between the Barbarians and the Harlem Globetrotters. At 21-0 we even saw Dan Thomas taking a quick-tap penalty just outside our 22 such was the eagerness to attack the visitors porous defence. Clearly not quite so easy for Bath to play against Bristol when we keep 15 men on the pitch for the full 80!
With a point a minute in the first half I was just about to go for a celebratory pint at 40-0 up when we gifted Bath a try under the posts. I’m sure I wasn’t the only psychologically scarred Bristol fan who entertained an anxious thought about throwing away a commanding lead like we have done so many times recently. Even after conceding a couple of early second half tries, surely we couldn’t mess this one up.
Thankfully normal service was resumed in the last 20 minutes as we ran in a further three tries to complete a thoroughly entertaining evening of rugby.
A month ago if you’d asked me, I would have said that I couldn’t see a future at the club for Tiff Eden, Jake Armstrong or Mitch Eadie. But on the basis of the last couple of outings both Tiff and Jake have looked like valuable new signings.
But on Friday my eye was particularly caught by Eadie’s barnstorming performance. Bristolian through and through, he knew what it meant to put Bath to the sword. A bundle of energy and menace throughout the game he scored a wonderful try, batting away Bath defenders like flies. I hope he’s done enough to make Pat ponder about keeping him.
