Bristol Moves Into Second Place After Win Against Worcester

 

Bristol Bears delivered a devastating second-half display to earn the first victory at Sixways for more than 14 years and climb back into second place in the Gallagher Premiership.

Warriors were unable to build on a solid first-half performance as Bristol swept to a bonus-point victory behind closed doors at Sixways.

Warriors led 13-10 at half time but failed to score another point after the break as Bristol capitalised on a plethora of mistakes in all areas of the field and used their pace and power to score four unanswered tries in a one-sided second period.

Dan Thomas started the second-half spree from a driving lineout before Siale Piutau scythed through the Warriors’ defence to touch down just six minutes later.
Immediately from the restart, Ben Earl saw his try ruled out for a foot in touch from Henry Purdy, but after Uren had sealed the bonus-point, the on-loan flanker took full advantage of Steven Luatua’s turnover to cap a memorable second 40 at Sixways.

Scorers:
Worcester Warriors: Try: Nanai. Conversion: Weir. Penalties: Weir (2).
Bristol Bears: Tries: Holmes, D Thomas, S Piutau, Uren, Earl. Conversions: Sheedy(4). Penalty: Sheedy.

Preview

Worcester Warriors only victory in the last ten rounds of Gallagher Premiership Rugby was 29-14 at home to Harlequins on 26 August, that victory ended a run of five straight defeats at Sixways in all tournaments.

Bristol Bears have lost their last two Gallagher Premiership Rugby encounters since beating Gloucester 33-24 at Kingsholm on 21 August, their first maximum point victory in Premiership Rugby since round one.

Bristol beat Worcester 13-10 at Ashton Gate in round 11 and have not achieved a Premiership Rugby season’s double over the Warriors since 2006/07 although they did repeat this in the RFU Championship in 2014-15. Bristol has won just twice at Sixways in any competition, in Premiership Rugby in September 2006 and the RFU Championship in April 2015.

Teams:
Worcester: 15. Melani Nanai, 14. Tom Howe, 13. Ollie Lawrence, 12. Francois Venter, 11. Noah Heward, 10. Duncan Weir, 9. Francois Hougaard, 8. Cornell du Preez, 7. Matt Kvesic, 6. Ted Hill (captain), 5. Graham Kitchener, 4. Anton Bresler, 3. Nick Schonert, 2. Niall Annett, 1. Ethan Waller. Replacements: 16. Isaac Miller, 17. Callum Black, 18. Richard Palframan, 19. Andrew Kitchener, 20. Matt Cox, 21. Gareth Simpson, 22. Billy Searle, 23. Ashley Beck.

Bristol: 15. Charles Piutau, 14. Luke Morahan, 13. Semi Radradra, 12. Siale Piutau, 11. Henry Purdy, 10. Callum Sheedy, 9. Harry Randall, 8. Nathan Hughes, 7. Dan Thomas, 6. Steven Luatua (captain), 5. Chris Vui, 4. Ed Holmes, 3. Kyle Sinckler, 2. Bryan Byrne, 1. Max Lahiff. Replacements: 16. Harry Thacker, 17. Jake Woolmore, 18. John Afoa, 19. Joe Joyce, 20. Ben Earl, 21. Andy Uren, 22. Ioan Lloyd, 23. Piers O’Conor.