Bristol Bears' winning start to the 2022/23 Gallagher Premiership season came to an end in Round Four as Newcastle Falcons convincingly ran out 30-15 victors at Kingston Park on Friday night.
Mateo Carreras scored a brace for the hosts with hooker George McGuigan scoring his fifth of the season and Connor Collett also on the scoresheet. Tian Schoeman kicked 10 points for the home side on his full debut having joined from Bath in the summer, while Henry Purdy and Rich Lane went over for Bristol and AJ MacGinty booted five points.
South West rugby reporter John Evely takes a closer look at the individual performances from the Bears players at Kingston Park…
READ MORE: Newcastle Falcons 30-15 Bristol Bears LIVE: Reaction as bottom beats top in the Premiership
15 Rich Lane - 5
Given the tough job of stepping into Charles Piutau’s big boots and he failed to do so. Scored a try but got stepped inside out by Mateo Carreras for the bonus point try.
14 Luke Morahan - 5
Replaced at halftime due to an injury having made one break and beaten a couple of defenders on a quiet night in the north east for the Australian. Also got sucked in too narrow to allow Carreras an easy run in for Newcastle's opening try with
13 Jack Bates - 5
Making his first start at centre this season having been picked on the wing against Wasps only to take a head knock a couple of minutes he barely featured in the contest, mainly because the ball had been dropped before it got as wide as him.
12 Piers O'Conor - 8
The centre was the exception to the rule for the Bears as he was sharp in everything he did, making breaks and getting over the gainline with his power. Made a brilliant clean break which really should have led to MacGinty scoring.
11 Henry Purdy - 6
The winger looked lacking of a cutting edge and paled in comparison to Newcastle’s dangermen out wide however he took his try well, needing some power to finish the job after a loopy wide pass from MacGinty set him free but also gave the home defence time to try and force him into touch.
10 AJ MacGinty - 6
The fly-half ran hot and cold, making two or three nice half breaks with his footwork but then choosing some poor passes. The try-saving tackle from Carreras on the Bears fly-half to stop him just short of the line was a crucial moment in the match.
9 Andy Uren - 5
Handed his first start of the season the scrum half was given messy ball to play with as Newcastle competed hard at every breakdown. Threw a couple of passes that asked a lot of people.
1 Jake Woolmore - 5
The loosehead had a tough night in the scrum but was incredibly physical around the park, rag dolling a Falcons player are one point.
2 Will Capon - 6
The hooker hit his men at the lineout and took a battering for the cause taking repeat tap and goes from 5m out as Newcastle shelled penalties in the second half and went down to 13 men.
3 Kyle Sinckler - 4
After not being named in England’s training squad next week Sinckler had an absolute shocker in front of Eddie Jones, dropping at least three balls and shelling penalties in the scrum. When he did win a scrum penalty he was warned by referee Luke Pearce for losing his composure, with the official threatening to send him off. Pat Lam read the situation and hooked him off.
Highly disappointing and indicative of the team.
4 Ed Holmes - 4
A really silly yellow card in the first half for a late, unnecessary no-arms tackle on Falcons scrum-half Sam Stuart. 60 seconds later and Falcons were over for their second try in his absence. Costly
5 Joe Joyce - 6
Having overcome his hip pointer injury the second row struggled to make a huge impact on the match
6 Chris Vui - 5
The Samoan missed a key tackle on Trevor Davison in the build-up to McGuigan’s try and then was unable to get enough contract on Carreras to down him or push him into touch for Newcastle’s bonus point score.
7 Jake Heenan - 7
The skipper made an impressive 22 tackles according to the first stats published, more than double than anyone else in his team, and was in the heart of the action throughout.
8 Magnus Bradbury - 7
The Scottish international made the most metres in attack in the entire Bears team with 41m gained as he stood out again. He will be very disappointed for an unforced dropped ball that killed momentum as Bristol looked to score back-to-back tries.
Replacements:
16 Harry Thacker - 6
17 Yann Thomas - 5
18 Max Lahiff - 5
19 John Hawkins - 6
20 Dan Thomas - 5
21 Harry Randall - 6
22 Callum Sheedy - 6
23 Sam Bedlow - 5
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