Bristol Bears kicked off their Premiership Rugby Cup campaign with a 20-35 home defeat to Exeter Chiefs, with flashes of exciting potential in attack but too many errors to hope to win the encounter.
Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam named an incredibly youthful side for the encounter, in fact his youngest ever, with an average age of 22 years and four months and just 161 competitive appearances between them.
In contrast, there was plenty of experience in Exeter’s side and it was Chiefs’ forward power that saw them get the upper hand in the first half.
However, it was the Bear cubs, playing the champagne rugby we associate with the first team, who broke the deadlock.
READ MORE: Bristol Bears 20-35 Exeter Chiefs LIVE: Reaction from Premiership Rugby Cup clash
Standout performer Ed Harvey burst through the Exeter defence with a powerful run and the ball was whipped wide to the left smoothly through four pairs of hands for Sam Worsley’s offload to send winger Harry Rowson sliding over in the corner.
Worsley’s conversion missed the mark; and moments later, Bristol were standing behind their own posts, conceding a penalty try for collapsing a driving maul from a lineout that looked destined to cross the whitewash. Hooker Bryan Bryne was yellow-carded for his attempt to bring down the mass of moving bodies.
With Byrne off the pitch Exeter scored twice through their pack, first powering hooker Jack Innard over the line with a maul before a destructive drive in the scrum gave the Devon side front foot ball inside the hosts’ 22 and lock Lewis Pearson burst through the blue-shirted defence with Ioan Lloyd unable to stop his progress practically on the line for a third try and a 21-5 half time lead.
It was Bristol who once again started brightest after the break with skipper Tom Whiteley zipping down the blindside, selling a dummy and accelerating to the tryline.
But two tries inside three minutes from Exeter took the game out of reach for the hosts with the impressive Pearson dotting down his second of the night, this time from a maul, with Sean O’Brien finishing the second from close range following a powerful drive from big Exeter number eight Rus Tuima.
After 20 minutes of dross, the Bears burst into life in the closing stages with two stars of the future at the fore, Deago Bailey broke two tackles and offloaded to outside centre Joe Jenkins to dummy and power over.
And then with the clock ticked zero inside Ashton Gate, Jenkins added his second of the night, again being on the spot to take an offload inside, this time from Harry Rowson, before showing great determination to carry a couple of Exeter defenders over the tryline.
As with all of Bristol’s four tries, the conversion was missed, the final attempt coming from James Williams.
Bristol’s attention now switches to a trip to Newcastle on Friday night in the Gallagher Premiership.
Bristol Bears: 15. Ioan Lloyd, 14. Deago Bailey, 13. Joe Jenkins, 12. James Williams, 11. Harry Rowson; 10. Sam Worsley, 9. Tom Whiteley (c); 1. Toti Benz-Soloman, 2. Bryan Byrne, 3. Jono Benz-Soloman, 4. Morgan Eames, 5. Joe Owen, 6. Aaron Tull, 7. Macenzzie Duncan, 8. Ed Harvey.
Replacements: 16. Fred Davies, 17. Andrew Turner, 18. George Kloska, 19. Jimmy Halliwell, 20. Jake Kerr, 21. Oscar Lennon, 22. Dylan Power, 23. Harry Ascherl.
Exeter Chiefs : 15 Dan John, 14 Arthur Relton, 13 Sean O’Brien, 12 Solomone Kata, 11 Facundo Cordero, 10 Will Becconsall, 9 Sam Maunder, 1 Josh Iosefa-Scott, 2 Jack Innard (capt), 3 Fin Richardson, 4 Lewis Pearson, 5 Cory Teague, 6 Ollie Leatherbarrow, 7 Ross Vintcent, 8 Rus Tuima.
Replacements: 16 Max Norey, 17 Danny Southworth, 18 Matt Johnson, 19 Joe Bailey, 20 Ben Grubb, 21 Orson James, 22 Tom Wyatt, 23 Frankie Nowell.
Referee: George Selwood
Assistant referees: Simon Adams and Peter Brunt
