Premiership clubs were quick to welcome the demotion of Saracens but they are appreciably slower to fill the vacuum at the top of the table left by the champions. Bristol and Gloucester are among the clubs contending for a place in the play-offs but a West Country derby high on endeavour but short on class will not soothe the concerns of commercial backers who fear the tournament’s worth has been devalued.
What would have been an engrossing relegation battle has been denied and there is no one to match Exeter, although the Chiefs have to show they can battle on two fronts after losing at home to Sale. Other than the top two, and Saracens, no club went into this round of matches having won more than half of their matches and there was little to distinguish them.
Bristol and Gloucester sum up the variable nature of the chasing pack. The Bears started the round having lost at home once in all competitions while Gloucester had one win on their travels, but the home side were without a victory in their last four Premiership matches and were seized by tension from the start here.
The more Bristol struggled to break down the meanest defence in the Premiership, the more they indulged in the unlikely and made mistakes, too many long passes and not enough direct running. They led 15-9 at half-time, five Callum Sheedy penalties outpointing the three of Owen Williams, who was making his first start for a year, but the first three times they scored they conceded within two minutes after bungling the restart.
Gloucester readily conceded penalties at the breakdown in slowing down Bristol’s possession. If they remained in touch on the scoreboard, they had only two attacks in Bristol’s 22 in the opening hour, during which time their Wales squad wing, Louis Rees-Zammit, touched the ball only once.Bristol improved after a half-time lecture, the hard running of Alapati Leiua, the excellent Dan Thomas and Luke Morahan giving Henry Purdy, the former Gloucester wing who was making his first start after arriving on a short-term loan from Coventry, an opening and he took three defenders with him over the line.
Nathan Hughes had become involved more, having spent much of the opening half on the wing. It was by mixing up their game that Bristol took control of the match, now dragging in defenders before going wide. Gloucester disappeared as an attacking threat after blowing a driving maul from a lineout until two more Bristol tries had secured the victory.
The first came when Bristol fooled Gloucester after the fourth of a series of five-metre scrums by moving the ball. Hughes flattened yet another defender and quick hands saw Mat Protheroe free Luke Morahan on the right. Two minutes later the replacement Protheroe scored on the left, making a searing outside break after the Bears had again committed defenders before spreading the ball.
Bristol scented a bonus point but Gloucester had the final word, Callum Braley’s quickly taken penalty resulting in a try for Freddie Clarke, but this was a return to the erraticism that used to bedevil them before the arrival of their head coach, Johan Ackermann. They had a short turnaround after the European Champions Cup match at Toulouse and had unusually lost players to England but, given they were third in the table, it was a performance that said a lot about the Premiership.
