One of the least experienced sides to ever pull on the Bristol Bears jersey at Ashton Gate were suffered a hugely predictable 82-21 defeat to Queensland Reds on Friday night in an unfortunate mismatch of an ‘exhibition game.’
The touring Super Rugby Pacific team, with 13 Wallabies in the starting XV travelled halfway around the world only to discover they were facing a thrown-together group of largely academy and invitational players with Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam opting to prioritise an almost unlosable game away at Ampthill in the Premiership Rugby Cup the next day instead of fully embracing a rare northern vs southern hemisphere battle.
In Lam’s defence, the Bears’ unenviable unavailable list, through a combination of injuries and international call-ups, is staggeringly destructive to any ambitions of playing two competitive games in the space of 24 hours, with 21 players out of action this week; among them England duo Ellis Genge and Harry Randall, and injured stars like Bill Mata, Harry Thacker, Joe Batley, AJ MacGinty and Max Malins.
The result of the drastically uneven sides was the Reds ran in 12 tries, with Jock Campbell touching down a hat-trick of second half tries and braces for Filipo Daugunu and Fraser McReight, with further scores from Richie Asiata, T|ate McDermott, Josh Flook, Kalani Thomas and Heremaia Murray. Fly-half Tom Lynagh landed seven of seven conversions for 14 points with replacement Harry McLaughlin-Phillips adding a further four for 8 points.
Bristol’s three tries were touched down by short-term loan signing Harry Bazalgette, veteran Max Lahiff and guest player Will Ramply. Bazalgette added all three conversions for 11 points on his Bears debut having signed from Hartpury earlier in the week.
Speaking after the game, Lam said: “Ideally we would have liked to put our best team available out. But in my role, the Premiership is our main focus and if we are not in the play-offs in the Premiership Rugby Cup we are not going to have a game in those four weeks before we face Exeter Chiefs in the league and we are going to have a real problem with our build-up.
“We really had to focus on the Premiership Rugby Cup game because we have to stay alive in that competition, otherwise it is going to affect us in the Premiership.”
The Bears sit second in the Gallagher Premiership after 11 rounds and Lam’s stronger squad this weekend did get the job done at Ampthill with a 74-14 victory at Dillingham Park.
Reflecting on Friday’s one-sided game, Lam said: “That was a fully strong, Wallaby-packed side out there. I admired the fight from our guys when you consider we had nine players out there for us for the first time after just one training run. To go out there, fight to the end and score three tries and see how they mark up against some of the world’s best players is class. I think there are some real futures there.”
Bristol Bears: 15. Elias Caven (Cambridge), 14. Solomon Taufa (Dings Crusaders), 13. Jacob Cusick (1 apps), 12. Gethin O’Callaghan (2 apps), 11. Harry Rowson (10 apps), 10. Harry Bazalgette (Hartpury), 9. Sam Wolstenholme (6 apps); 1. Jake Woolmore (163 apps), 2. Gabriel Oghre (33 apps), 3. Max Lahiff (101 apps), 4. Ethan Surrey (2 apps), 5. Joe Owen (27 apps), 6. Paddy Pearce (10 apps), 7. Aaron Tull (7 apps), 8. Jake Heenan (c) (117 apps).
Replacements: 16. Tom Doughty, 17. Sam Grahamslaw, 18. Tom Sims (Dings Crusaders), 19. Brian Ncube (Dings Crusaders), 20. Will Ramply (Nottingham University), 21. *George Turner (Dragons TBC), 22. Matty Jones (Hartpury), 23. Dylan Power (Exeter University), 24. Josh Carrington (Cardiff Met).
Queensland Reds: 15. Jock Campbell, 14. Lachie Anderson, 13. Josh Flook, 12. Hunter Paisami, 11. Filipo Daugunu, 10. Tom Lynagh, 9. Tate McDermott (C), 1. Alex Hodgman, 2. Richie Asiata, 3. Zane Nonggorr, 4. Josh Canham, 5. Lukhan Salakai-Loto, 6. Seru Uru, 7. Fraser McReight, 8. Harry Wilson
Replacements: 16. Matt Faessler, 17. Sef Fa’agase, 18. Massimo De Lutiis, 19. Ryan Smith, 20. Joe Brial, 21. Kalani Thomas*, 22. Harry McLaughlin-Phillips, 23. Heremaia Murray