sport news Bristol Bears 31-29 Bath: Returning Ellis Genge scores twice to inspire victory ... trends now
Ellis Genge’s return to his hometown club Bristol started and ended with a bang as the England prop’s outrageous brace led the Bears to a thrilling 31-29 comeback win over bitter rivals Bath.
This Ashton Gate clash, postponed from Friday night following the death of the late Queen Elizabeth II, was worth waiting for. In the end, Genge and his Bears won it at the death.
Genge captained Leicester to last season’s Premiership title and scored with his first touch back in a Bristol shirt to kickstart an enthralling encounter.
Ellis Genge inspired Bristol to victory in his first game back at Ashton Gate
Pat Lam’s Bears led 17-16 at the break after Magnus Bradbury and Luke Morahan added to Genge’s opener. Morahan’s try sparked an all-out brawl between both sets of players.
Bath replacement Niall Annett, who wasn’t even on the field at the time of the try, was red carded for his part in the fight. Bath centre Will Butt had earlier been yellow carded.
The second half was scrappy, but Bath showed plenty of character and a try from hooker Tom Dunn – who went the 80 with Annett unable to replace him – put them in control.
Genge grabbed another stunning try after taking a quick tap and smashing through Bath tacklers for a second long-range effort, but it looked like the boot of Piers Francis would see the visitors home.
That was until an unstoppable Bristol shove ended with Will Capon being driven over for the match-winning score. ‘It was a great start with Ellis scoring,’ said Bristol director of rugby Lam. ‘He was itching to go last night and wanted to get into it. His actions back up his talk.
‘Ellis has come in and fitted into our culture really well. It was five tries to two and all that matters is the five points. What I liked was that there was no panic.’
Bristol had initially been incensed at this game being put back by a day and the Bears estimated doing so would cost them in the region of £300,000. A strong crowd still packed out Ashton Gate although the lack of a television match official was a disappointment.
Genge, who captained Leicester Tigers to last season's Premiership title bagged a brace in the victory
The rescheduling of the game meant no TMO was available and the match was not broadcast. Unsurprisingly, the TMO was missed – particularly when Annett saw red – and it was a great shame this splendid encounter was not seen by a wider audience.
BT Sport had been due to broadcast the match on Friday night but could not do so when it was rescheduled, much to the frustration of many.
Both Lam and Bath head of rugby Johann van Graan bemoaned the absence of a TMO while they also said the delay to the game had no impact on the result or the performances of their teams.
‘There was a lot of niggle and off-the-ball stuff and that’s what’s going to happen when you don’t have a TMO,’ Lam said.
Van Graan responded: ‘I spoke with Pat about the TMO before the game. It was unprecedented events but we just had to adapt to what we could control.’ This was Genge’s second Bristol debut after re-joining the club where he started his career from Leicester in the summer.
Genge had made it clear he was always going to play in this season opener despite his exertions with England in Australia this summer and he was clearly pumped up. His start couldn’t have gone better after a minute’s silence in memory of the Queen and the signing of the national anthem took place.
Players observed a minute's silence prior to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II
Genge’s fellow playmaking prop Kyle Sinckler was involved in the build-up, but the former didn’t need anyone else as he dummied and ran in from 30 yards. Genge even had time to celebrate before scoring as Ashton Gate went wild. Callum Sheedy converted. Bristol, at that stage, were purring.
You feared for Bath, who have underperformed so badly in the past two seasons and were
