A Luke Morahan brace helped Bristol Bears secure their fifth straight win in the Gallagher Premiership on Sunday with a 28-15 victory over Harlequins to move up to third in the table.
Standout performer Chris Vui also crossed the whitewash as Pat Lam's side secured a routine win over the West London visitors who were not helped in their efforts to halt Bristol's winning run by arriving at the ground late.
A try after just 47 seconds for Morahan was the best evidence Quins were still on the delayed bus mentally by the time the contest kicked off.
Aaron Morris and Gabriel Ibitoye touched down for the visitors but 13 points from the boot of Callum Sheedy helped Bristol to another historic win.
Bristol Bears rugby writer John Evely takes a closer look at the key points from the game.
Another record tumbles
In the most competitive domestic rugby competition in the world the hardest thing to do is string together consecutive wins but that is just what the Bears have managed to do in recent weeks with a club record breaking five in a row in a single season.
The winning streak started on January 25 with 34-16 victory over Gloucester and was followed by a 14-20 victory away at Northampton Saints, 13-10 success at home to bogey side Worcester Warriors, historic 13-19 triumph at The Rec over derby rivals Bath Rugby and then comfortable win over Quins on Sunday.
The last time Bristol won five league games in a row was in 1996 split over two seasons and as widely reported has never been done before by the club in a single season.
If the Bears can make it six in a row when defending champions Saracens come to Ashton Gate next then Bristol really will be in wonderland.
Luke Morahan in fine company
A brace of tries on Sunday shot Bristol Bears’ Australian winger Luke Morahan to the joint top of the try scoring charts in the Gallagher Premiership having touched down seven times this season.
The ever present Morahan has played in all 13 league games this campaign, making 18 clean breaks, beating 41 defenders and setting up three tries on top of his scoring exploits.
However tt is crowded at the top of the try scoring charts with Gloucester’s Welsh wing sensation Louis Rees-Zammit, London Irish’s speedster Ollie Hassell-Collins, Wasps ace Zach Kibirige and Saracens flanker Ben Earl, who will be joining Bristol next season on loan, all have seven tries so far this season.
Elsewhere Bears fly-half Callum Sheedy is four points off Quins fly-half Marcus Smith in the race for the golden boot with 122 points this season in the league while Charles Piutau continues to lead the metres made in attack stats with a staggering 1223.
Bonus point blues
While all is relatively rosy in the Bears camp this season, sitting in third place in the Gallagher Premiership having won eight of their 13 league games with one draw against London Irish, director of rugby Pat Lam was left understandably frustrated at failing to secure the four-try bonus point on Sunday having scored three tries in the first half.
And it is a surprising trend this season.
In fact so far this season only sixth place Bath and 11th place Leicester Tigers have picked up fewer bonus points with just two, compared to the Bears’ four.
Perhaps surprisingly struggling Gloucester, who are in ninth, have the most so far this season with 10 already.
The most interesting cases of the difference bonus points can make is illustrated by fifth place Wasps who have nine already this season.
Despite having lost three more games than Bristol already in 2019/20 Wasps are just five points behind their rivals in the table because of their bonus points which of course can be won for being within seven points in defeat or scoring four tries or more.
While Lam was disappointed not to get the bonus point on Sunday against Quins he asserted having a winning mentality was more valuable in the long-run.
He said: “I’ll tell you this, I’d rather have more wins then a losing bonus point, that’s what we had last year, we had some good bonus points but some of them were losses.
“I’d rather have the four then the one, but it would be even better if we had got the five.”
Indiscipline hurting the Bears
Bristol should really have been out of sight against Harlequins but not for the first time this season indiscipline let the opposition back into the game.
Henry Purdy picked up the Bears’ ninth yellow card of the season with only Northampton Saints conceding more [11].
Purdy’s card in the 39th minute on Sunday was earned for a slap down knock on when Quins had an overlap on the outside.
Bristol actually handled the 10 minutes down to 14 men incredibly well, conceding no points despite the visitors looking a different side after the break with Marcus Smith coming off the bench to pull the strings.
But it was the penalties which really hurt Bristol, with excellent defensive plays effectively scrubbed off by then immediately transgressing unnecessarily near the halfway line to allow the visitors to kick for the corner again.
Post match Lam acknowledged there were areas to work on.
He said: “Discipline, a bit of sloppiness, all of that but these are all our work-ons for the week.”
Narrowing odds
Not so many weeks ago the odds with the bookies on Bristol Bears winning the Gallagher Premiership for the first time in their history were at 40-1, before kick off against Harlequins they were at 14-1.
After Sunday's win they are now as low as 9-1.
The money men are certainly taking Bristol seriously and so they should be.
