Bristol Bears beat derby rivals Bath Rugby 31-29 at Ashton Gate on Saturday evening to get their 2022/23 Gallagher Premiership campaign off to a winning start.
The Bears came back to earn a bonus point win thanks to a brace of tries from new signing Ellis Genge and scores from Magnus Bradbury, Luke Morahan and Will Capon.
Bath scored tries through new club captain Ben Spencer and stalwart Tom Dunn, while Piers Francis landed five penalties and two conversions to be 100 percent successful off the tee, although his drop goal to win the game with clock in the red drifted wide.
South West rugby writer John Evely takes a closer look at the individual performances from the derby…
READ MORE: Bristol Bears v Bath Rugby LIVE: Reaction from derby victory at Ashton Gate
15. Charles Piutau - 8
The new Tongan international full back was Bristol’s most dangerous threat in the backline as he handed off players, stepped them or simply ran over them. A huge hand off on Matt Gallagher and then his magical offload helped create the room needed for Morahan’s try.
Defensively he should have done better as he got stepped by Spencer for Bath’s opening try.
14. Luke Morahan - 7
The winger carried on his hot pre-season form with a try in the corner just before a half. It was an easy enough finish but he did a fine job. Lively in some of the off the ball scuffles.
13. Piers O'Conor - 7
The centre made a couple of trademark breaks and showed some good hands but was generally well marshalled by the Bath defence.
12. Sam Bedlow - 6
The centre had a solid day without massively catching the eye. Kept Cam Redpath quiet.
11. Rich Lane - 7
The winger really stretched the Bath defence with his pace as he hugged the touchlines expertly, getting dragged into touch on a couple of occasions by good tackles.
10. Callum Sheedy - 7
The fly-half was a running threat as demonstrated with his key role in the Bears’ third try as he got on the outside of the Bath defence with a goosestep, staying alive in the play to effectively do a one-two with Charles Piutau to be able to spread the ball wide to Morahan top finish. Yellow carded for his part in a fight after Morahan’s try.
9. Harry Randall - 7
The scrum half delivered crisp deliveries and tried to bring some pace to the match but Bath managed the game well and slowed down the tempo by using old tricks like throwing the ball away when Randall was looking to take quick tap penalties.
Excellent defensively, particularly when hassling the Bath number eight Jaco Coetzee at the back of the scrum.
1. Ellis Genge - 10
Dream debut stuff with a try in the first 90 seconds of his homecoming, breaking the tackle of Josh McNally before racing in from 30m out, dummying the final defender and celebrating on his way to the line. Abrasive and dangerous with every touch although guilty of buying Ben Spencer’s dummy to allow the Bath skipper to race through a gap and score.
Poor injured Harry Thacker, who is normally Bristol’s tap and go man when close to the line is never getting the ball again as Genge’s second try was simple outrageous as he tapped to himself and powered over from about 15m out after catching the Bath defence napping.
Well and truly living up to the massive hype.
2. Bryan Byrne - 5
The hooker had a difficult day in the lineout with Bristol coming a distant second best in that particular setpiece area, getting picked off on several occasions.
3. Kyle Sinckler - 7
The England tighthead struggled to gain dominance in the scrum but certainly held his own and probably just edged the battle with Beno Obano before he got injured and then Lewis Boyce who are both very good scrummagers.
Gave the pass for Genge’s first try, made some big tackles and hard yards of his own. Could have scored if Genge had given a pass back to him after breaking the line having taken up a great supporting position on the loosehead’s right which drew praise from Pat Lam.
“For the first try Ellis scored, everyone was in the right place. It was a great start with him scoring. We didn’t get many chances after that and had to guts it out.”
4. Joe Joyce - 7
Back from shoulder surgery, the lock was a physical presence in the derby, catching the eye when he locked horns with Bath backrower Richard de Carpentier in one of the many scuffles in the game.
Certainly not about to take a backward step.
5. Chris Vui - 7
The Samoan lock had some classy touches but was not the eye catching carrier of some weeks.
6. Sam Jeffries - 7
The flanker delivered quick ball at the breakdown and tackled well and spent most of the match doing the unseen hard work in the middle of mauls.
7. Jake Heenan - 7
The Bristol skipper did a fine job of calming his side down when the game looked set to boil over following the fight when Luke Morahan scored which ended in Sheedy seeing yellow from referee Tom Foley and Bath replacement hooker Niall Annett, who wasn’t even on the pitch, given a red card.
8. Magnus Bradbury - 8
Scored a fine try on his debut in the corner to cap a powerful carrying display.
Bristol look to have got themselves a real player as he provided almost constant go forward and was unlucky to have not held up Tom Dunn for the Bath hooker’s second half try having done well to get underneath him.
Replacements:
16. Will Capon - 7
17. Jake Woolmore - 7
18. Max Lahiff - 7
19. Ed Holmes - 7
20. Sam Lewis - 7
21. Andy Uren - 7
22. AJ MacGinty - 8
23. Jack Bates - 7
