After two seasons disrupted by COVID-19 it was great to get started this year knowing we’d be back to normal, with big gates at Ashton Gate.
With record season ticket sales and the pre-game announcement that Pat Lam had signed a five-year extension with the Bears, anticipation before kick-off was reaching fever pitch.
Walking to the game on Friday night it felt that the stars were aligning.
We’d take the painful lessons from that semi-final defeat and stamp our paw print on the Premiership from day one.
Despite Saracens pedigree, surely no team could spoil the Bears' homecoming party could they – well, Sarries certainly did.
I can only use one word to describe how I felt after Friday night and that’s ‘flat’.
The performance by the team was flat.
The incessant first half ‘kick tennis’ to try and take advantage of the new 50-22 rule was dull. And a resolute Saracens defence snubbed out pretty match every glimmer of Bristol running the ball.
The only exception in the first half was the amazing break by Charles Piutau where he ghosted past flailing Saracens arms as if protected by some kind of invisible force field. If Ioan Llloyd had managed to score in the corner, we surely would have had our try of the season and some much-needed momentum on the scoreboard.
As the game progressed our scrum creaked, balls were fumbled and with the penalty count mounting, Alex Lozowski kept nudging Sarries further ahead with an exhibition of top-class place kicking.
I was flat and the crowd was flat too.
Three thousand people watching the Gloucester game towards the end of last season made more of an atmosphere than the 19,000 on Friday. But with so much pointless kicking and very little try-line excitement, there wasn’t much for us fans to cheer about.
Even the pasties ran out!
On the flip side, this is only the first game of a long season and despite their pride of absent Lions, Saracens will be a force to be reckoned with this term.
We also know it is how you end the season, not start, that wins trophies. And with no meaningful pre-season friendlies, this painful jolt will hopefully get us match sharp and battle-ready for next week.
You can listen to this week’s Bears Beyond the Gate show on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Spotify and Buzzsprout.
