Leicester dig deep to beat play-off rivals Bristol

The Prem

Leicester (17) 33

Tries: Moro, Liebenberg, Perese, Hamer-Webb Cons: Searle 2 Pens: Searle 3

Bristol (12) 19

Leicester climbed above fellow play-off hopefuls Bristol into third place in The Prem with a thrilling bonus-point 33-19 win at Welford Road.

The new Prem Rugby Cup winners were in their first league action since January and saw off a strong showing from Bristol to end the Bears’ five-game winning run in the league.

In-form Billy Searle pulled the strings from fly-half and his kicking helped make the difference in a seesaw encounter full of fast rugby.

Searle’s accuracy from the tee was impressive and the Tigers got their fourth try in added time when Gabe Hamer-Webb streaked clear in style.

Bristol, who fall to fifth in the table, last lost in The Prem in October but were up against it early as the Tigers made a fast start.

Leicester captain Ollie Chessum was among a host of internationals to immediately return after the Six Nations while Bristol gave England’s Ellis Genge, Wales star Louis Rees-Zammit and Scotland’s Tom Jordan a week off.

Joaquin Moro burrowed over from a metre out after a quick tap penalty and Hanro Liebenberg added Leicester’s second after a wonderful free-flowing attack took the Tigers from their own 22.

The Bears had been second best but then scored twice in two minutes to ignite the contest.

A fine run and handoff from Gabriel Ibitoye opened up Leicester for the first time and forward Fitz Harding was able to finish, before wing Kalaveti Ravouvou scored a superb individual try after bouncing off a tackle from Freddie Steward.

Searle kicked another penalty to stretch the Leicester lead but Bristol then piled on pressure with their pack and were rewarded with Harding piling over for his second score.

The conversion from James Williams made it 20-19 but the Tigers then raised their game.

Searle led a superb break from Leicester which would have led to one of the tries of the season only for Moro to spill the ball while flying over the line.

But Moro did then assist a pivotal score, teeing up replacement Izaia Perese to power over.

Leicester coach Geoff Parling:

“It didn’t feel like fun to me at times! At the end I was screaming [for them] to kick the ball out but they backed themselves to score the bonus-point try.

“I am proud of the lads. The internationals have been away for two months so they had to get back up to speed but their attitude was outstanding.

“We have to keep working. We’ll keep running and enjoy tonight.”

Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam to BBC Radio Bristol:

“We created enough opportunities to get more out of the game but we squandered them. We showed good fight but ultimately we ended up chasing the game.

“A lot of the boys are disappointed but we will get better. We had the attacking intent we all saw in the Six Nations, we made decisions to go which were right.

Leicester Tigers: Steward; Hamer-Webb, Wand, Bailey, Hassell-Collins, Searle, Whiteley; Smith, Blamire, Heyes, Liebenberg, Chessum, Moro, Watson, Cracknell.

Replacements: Theobald-Thomas, Van der Flier, Hurd, Thomas, Palmer, Van Poortvliet, O’Connor, Perese.

Bristol Bears: Heward; Ravouvou, Janse van Rensburg, Williams, Ibitoye, Worsley, Randall; Woolmore, Oghre, Kloska, Dun, Owen, Luatua, Harding, Mata.

Replacements: Gwilliam, Lahiff, Chawatama, Taylor, Grondona, Marmion, Moroni, Boshoff.