Bristol Bears exploded into life in the second half away in Italy on Saturday night to score six tries against Zebre Parma and book their place in the last 16 knockout round of the Challenge Cup.
After director of rugby Pat Lam gave his senior leaders a stern on-field talking to at half time as his side went in 6-0 down having failed to fire a shot, the Bears responded with a barrage of points after the break to win their third straight European game.
Hooker Harry Thacker scored a hat-trick of tries and was joined on the scoresheet by Ioan Lloyd, Fitz Harding, Magnus Bradbury while Callum Sheedy converted two of the conversions for a 34-11 victory.
Zebre crossed the line through winger Simone Gesi while former Bears fly-half Tiff Eden kicked a pair of penalties.
Bristol welcomed back two of the club’s X-factor players from long-term injuries in the form of England international scrum half Harry Randall and winger Siva Naulago and both men made a significant impression after months on the sidelines.
Randall was named player of the match as he zipped around the turf at the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi to inject some urgency and cutting edge into his side. However there was little of either of those attributes on display from the visitors in the first half with Eden giving Zebre the lead thanks to two long-range penalties.
Despite losing superstar centre Semi Radradra to a cut above his eye thanks to a stray boot to the face moments into the second half, the Bears crossed the whitewash just four minutes after the interval. Randall burst down the blindside off the back of a maul and fed his hooker to finish the move.
Naulago, who has not played a competitive game since April having recovered from knee surgery and then a hamstring tear, grew into the game and became increasingly influential. Moments after making a searing break through the middle he set Lloyd up with a sumptuous and almost casual offload back inside having sucked in a couple of yellow shirted defenders who were trying to drag him into touch.
Sheedy missed both his first two conversion attempts meaning Zebre were able to retake the lead in the 62nd minute as the hosts exploited a four man overlap to put winger Gesi over in the corner.
But the Italians’ lead lasted just six minutes as Bristol hit back with their catch and drive game to put Thacker over for his second of the night.
With seven minutes remaining Zebre replacement prop Luca Rizzoli was shown a yellow card for coming around a ruck offside to smash Randall. With the hosts down to 14, the flood gates opened and Harding and Thacker scored in quick succession from short-range lineouts and drives before Naulago turned provider again with an out the back offload to Magnus Bradbury on the wing and the Scottish international had the power and pace to bump off the first attempted tackler and touchdown in the corner to deliver Ellis Genge a win in his first game as captain of his hometown club having returned from Leicester Tigers in the summer having skippered them to the Premiership title last season.
Bristol now play Perpignan at Ashton Gate on Friday looking to secure a top seeding to earn a favourable draw in the last 16 knockout game in April. With the Bears still rooted to the foot of the Premiership table the Challenge Cup provides an uplifting distraction.
Zebre Parma: 15. Jacopo Trulla, 14. Pierre Bruno, 13. Tommaso Boni, 12. Enrico Lucchin (c), 11. Simone Gesi, 10. Tiff Eden, 9. Alessandro Fusco, 1. Paolo Buonfiglio, 2. Luca Bigi , 3. Matteo Nocera, 4. Josh Furno, 5. Andrea Zambonin, 6. Guido Volpi, 7. Matt Kvesic, 8. Davide Ruggeri.
Replacements: 16. Marco Manfredi, 17. Luca Rizzoli, 18. Muhamed Hasa, 19. Gabriele Venditti, 20. Giovanni Licata, 21. Ratko Jelic, 22. Geronimo Prisciantelli, 23. Erich Cronjé.
Bristol Bears: 15. Henry Purdy, 14. Toby Fricker, 13. Semi Radradra, 12. Ioan Lloyd, 11. Ratu Naulago, 10. Callum Sheedy, 9. Harry Randall, 1. Ellis Genge (c), 2. Harry Thacker, 3. Kyle Sinckler, 4. Joe Joyce, 5. Chris Vui, 6. Magnus Bradbury, 7. Jake Heenan, 8. Fitz Harding.
Replacements: 16. Fred Davies, 17. Yann Thomas, 18. Max Lahiff, 19. Joe Batley, 20. Daniel Thomas, 21. Andy Uren, 22. James Williams, 23. Jack Bates.
Referee: Luc Ramos (France)
Assistant referees: Evan Urruzmendi (France) and Christian Coussan (France)
TMO: Patrick Dellac (France)
