After all the promise of last year this season has been one to forget for Bristol Bears. Having topped the 2020-21 regular season it seemed Pat Lam’s rampant attacking side would only go from strength to strength this term, but lagging in tenth, it has been a totally different story.
Injuries take much of the blame: the absence of the likes of Semi Radradra for extended chunks of the season has certainly hindered them. But the defeat to Saracens at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium showed what — or rather who — they have also been missing.
Max Malins and Ben Earl were never going to stay at Ashton Gate after their loan spells, but oh how Lam will have wanted them to. Malins, who was unfortunate to be dropped by Eddie Jones recently, scored two tries in his side’s 27-23 win, while Earl, who has been outcast by the England head coach altogether, made 19 tackles in a man-of-the-match performance.
It means Bristol have lost 13 of 19 games this year, but with blood pouring down his face at full-time, Earl admitted that Saracens would have lost on another day.
Bristol were the better side with Fitz Harding particularly excellent, Owen Farrell was understandably not at his best on return from injury and was lucky not to see a card for (another) shoulder charge, and had lock Joe Joyce not passed forwards at the death after a searing (yes, searing) break then the Bears would have won.
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Hutchinson humbles Irish in front of record crowd
The race for the play-offs just got a whole lot closer. Only three points now separate Exeter Chiefs in fourth from London Irish in eighth after Northampton Saints cruised to a 42-22 victory in front of 15,085 fans at the Brentford Community Stadium, a record home attendance for Irish.
Rory Hutchinson conceded in the week that he had to get over a slow start to this season, but was correct in identifying his more recent surge in form. The centre is such a useful asset outside of Dan Biggar, both as a second playmaking option and with those rangey runs of his.
In his side’s bonus-point win the Scot set up Tom Collins early on with a bullet miss pass, he stepped and jinked through to score three minutes later, and assisted Fraser Dingwall in the second half after some quick hands.
Hutchinson was selected — but not used — in Gregor Townsend’s Six Nations squad this year. “I would obviously have liked to have played, but hopefully I can get an invite back in the summer,” he said. Employing him as a second playmaker outside Finn Russell against Argentina this summer could be a gamble worth making with the World Cup on the horizon.
Underhill back at peak of his powers
Had Faf de Klerk not missed a relatively straightforward penalty with the clock red then Sale Sharks would have travelled back up to Manchester with all four points, but it is worth noting how improved Bath looked again in this 24-24 draw.
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Alex Sanderson lamented Sale’s “uncharacteristically soft” performance in the first half, but Bath’s set piece was steady, Danny Cipriani rolled back the years by carving through Sale’s back line to set up Tom de Glanville’s try, and the outstanding Sam Underhill showed there is far more to his game than world-class defence.
Injuries and a lack of playing time have hindered Underhill this season but his two tries and rampaging support lines proved he is returning to the peak of his powers. Stuart Hooper, Bath’s director of rugby, singled the flanker out for praise. “He went to his sister’s wedding in Miami and only came back on Thursday,” he said. “He is probably the best No 7 in the world. He’s ridiculously talented.”
McGuigan hat-trick proves point to RFU
It seems only the RFU fails to see the benefits — or fairness — in retaining promotion and relegation to and from the Premiership. Joe Marler said recently that they “are stuck in the dark ages” in preventing Ealing Trailfinders or Doncaster Knights from being promoted next season, while the success of Melvyn Jaminet and Gabin Villière for France only further proves the benefit a competitive second division can have on a national team.
George McGuigan was on the losing side in Newcastle Falcons’ 27-24 defeat to Wasps, but his hat-trick was another example of the influence the RFU Championship can have. Since touching down ten times in ten games in the 2019-20 Championship season, the hooker has become a tryscoring force for Newcastle, with 19 Premiership tries in the past two seasons.
In the end tries by Dan Robson, Joe Launchbury and Tom West and a late Jimmy Gopperth penalty kept Wasps in the play-off race, but McGuigan is now the season’s Premiership top tryscorer with 12. He had played plenty of seasons in the Premiership before his time in the Championship, but whatever effect that year had should serve as a timely reminder to the RFU.
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Ashton draws level with Varndell
Ninety-two. Chris Ashton is 34 years old, he has played more than 150 Premiership games, and he is now the league’s joint-record tryscorer with Tom Varndell after touching down his 91st and 92nd tries in Leicester Tigers’ 22-17 win over Exeter.
Ashton has been unsettled over the past few seasons, yo-yo-ing between Sale, Worcester Warriors, Harlequins and now Leicester, but holding the rapid Josh Hodge for pace for his second try showed he still has that devastating turn of foot.
Exeter mounted a superbly spirited second-half fightback having trailed 19-0, but Leicester guaranteed their place in the play-offs with a first win at Sandy Park in seven visits.
“We know coming down here it’s never going to be easy to get a win,” Ollie Chessum, the man of the match, said. “They were coming back at us so credit to them, but we stuck together and that last five minutes was a massive effort from everyone. There’s no let-off — we will keep going until the end — we want a home semi-final and we will keep working for that.”
