Bristol fight back to overcome feisty Newcastle

The Prem.

Bristol (12) 36

Rees-Zammit 2, Moroni, Heward, Ravouvou, and Oghre Cons: Jordan 2, Williams, and

Newcastle (17) 27

The Red Bulls saw a chance to end their search for a Prem win slip through the fingers of Bristol Bears’ second-half strength as they defeated Newcastle 36-27.

With the victory, Bristol moves up to second place in the table ahead of the final weekend games, with scores from Matias Moroni, Kalaveti Ravouvou, Noah Heward, and Gabriel Oghre.

Newcastle had a try bonus point after an impressive Oli Spencer double, plus tries from Murray McCallum and Ollie Leatherbarrow, gave them a majority of the lead up until the 56-minute mark.

Spencer scored the winning goal with a winger scooping the ball off the ground and diving past Ravouvou to touch down with one hand in six minutes as McCallum completed a smooth passage of varied attacking play.

Bristol made a two-try conversion with two minutes remaining as Rees-Zammit had a chance to raise his arm in the air before diving over for the first try.

When Leatherbarrow headed under the posts as Red Bulls surged further in numbers to make it 17-12, Newcastle still had the half’s final lead.

The visitors’ lead was 20-12 at the start of the second half when Brett Connon’s penalty, which quickly paid off as replacements Oghre and Heward exchanged passes for the latter.

Spencer added his second for Newcastle with a bonus-point score after Sammy Arnold made the line break, Alex Hearle slipped through two defenders, and Sammy Arnold added his second.

But Bristol’s new legs, led by a vicious Ellis Genge, made it three tries clear in ten minutes.

Pat Lam, Bristol’s rugby director, told BBC Radio Bristol: “

“A hard-earned five points, well done to Newcastle, they really took it from us.” We made adjustments in the group, but we weren’t really getting front-foot ball. They slowed down our ball, but some quality did come through at the end.

With the six-day turnaround to Sale [on January 2,] and the addition of some of the boys who weren’t playing today, it’s good to get the five points.

We knew they would score the majority of their tries if they got in, so we talked about nothing and then we would score again and then we would let them in. We’ve got to take a look at ourselves, but some of the penalties we were initially penalized for were undoubtedly questionable.

Alan Dickens, the head coach of the Red Bulls of Newcastle, stated to BBC Radio Newcastle:

The concept of momentum was something we frequently discussed when playing this game.

“We had the momentum in the first half against Bath, but we lost it,” we said, “so we talked about how if we do lose it, how do we get it back?”

Bristol had a purple patch after scoring the fourth try in the second half, which was unfortunate because of how we managed to regain momentum toward the back end of the second half.

“Granted,” they admitted that a small amount of poor discipline led to a 20-minute red card that gave them possession and territory before Bristol could pressure them and not score again, resulting in a tighter conclusion.

Oghre, Genge, Halliwell, Rubiolo, Ivanishvili, Wolstenholme, Worsley, and Lane are the replacements.

Sin bin Kalaveti Ravouvou (77)

Red card 20 mins: Batley (66)

Newcastle: Grayson, Spencer, Hearle, Arnold, Obatoyinbo, Connon, Benitez Cruz, Brocklebank, McGuigan (c), McCallum, Usher, De Chaves, Gordon, Christie, De Chaves, De Chaves, Gordon, Christie, Leatherbarrow.

Fletcher, Hancock, Palframan, Baker, Mafi, Elliott, Hutchison, Chamberlain, and others.