Bristol Bears have had a less than ideal start to their Premiership campaign. Pat Lam‘s team reached the play-offs last season, with that controversial win over Leicester Tigers helping them clinch a home semi-final tie as league winners. The Bears ultimately self-imploded and allowed Harlequins to recover from 28-0 down at Ashton Gate to secure an improbable 43-36 victory after extra time.
Harlequins went on to win last year’s title after a thrilling victory against favourites Exeter Chiefs. Despite the silverware, Quins were never heavily fancied to retain their title at the start of this season (though you’d be happy if you’d backed them to do just that given their impressive first five matches). Bristol, by contrast, were as short as 4-1 to go all the way in 2021/22. So what’s gone wrong?
The points against column, while not a disaster, leaves much room for improvement. However, the most obvious place to start based on the simple facts and figures is Bears’ attack – or lack thereof. It’s always going to be difficult to win rugby matches when you can’t put double-digit scores on the board.
Yes, there are plenty of low-scoring matches in this sport, but so far only the 15-8 defeat at Newcastle falls anywhere close to that category for Bristol. The heavy 44-8 loss to Wasps – who Bristol really should be beating if they have any ambitions for the title this year – will have been particularly concerning.
The Bears have also been struggling with an injury crisis of sorts. Blooding academy players is of course fantastic for their development, but having to rush them in to fill sizable gaps left by the likes of John Afoa, Luke Morahan and Steven Luatua is a different story altogether. Most of the Bears’ try-scoring threat has come from scrum half Harry Randall and although rugby matches are rarely won by individuals alone, the long-term absence of a player with the quality of Semi Radradra is also hard to discount.
Perhaps it is also a hangover from the brutal way in which last year’s season ended for Bristol. It won’t be any consolation to Lam and his team but they’re no longer among the favourites for the title which, if we are trying to find silver linings, will certainly help to relieve some of the pressure from this squad that seems may be struggling under the weight of expectation.
The season is still young and a good run of games may yet see the Bears in the postseason mix (having a punt on that using the paddy power sign up offer wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world at this stage).
Meanwhile Leicester, Bristol’s semi-final foes from last year, have impressed in the majority of their games so far this season. That should be music to the ears of Rugby Premiership fans across the country, as a strong Tigers team at Welford Road – not to mention the return of Saracens – makes this one of the most competitive rugby competitions there is.
