Bristol Bears' semi-final hopes dented by defeat to inspired Saracens

Bristol Bears' play-off fate will come down to the last day of the regular season away at old foes Harlequins after Pat Lam's side were outplayed on their home turf by defending champions Saracens on Saturday, going down 41-20 without even registering a losing bonus point to drop out of the top four heading into the trip to The Stoop.

Bristol's semi-final hopes are now in serious jeopardy as they need results elsewhere to go their way next weekend, namely Saracens to win at home against Sale Sharks. In this form, and with a home semi-final still up for grabs for the North London club, that seems highly likely.

READ MORE: Bristol Bears 20-41 Saracens LIVE reaction and highlights from Ashton Gate

At Ashton Gate for the final time in 2023/24, the Bears failed to make the most of a crucial seven-minute period in the second half when Saracens were down to 13-men following yellow cards for Maro Itoje and Ben Earl, as the visitors survived relatively cheaply on the scoreboard to run out convincing winners. Itoje scored two of their tries while Romiti Segun and Juan-Martin Gonzalez were also on the try-scoring sheet to claim a bonus point win, with player-of-the-match Elliot Daly converting two and kicking four penalties. Owen Farrell added a penalty and a conversion.

Joe Batley and Harry Thacker scored Bristol’s tries with AJ MacGinty kicking two penalties and a conversion. James Williams also added a conversion.

Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam reflected: “We started well but then our execution wasn’t very good as we didn’t take a number of opportunities. We encouraged the players at half-time not to go into their shell and we needed to score when he had five to seven minutes of pressure early in the second half but we didn’t capitalise.

“They slowed the game down in the sin-binning period and there were a couple of tough calls from the referee which went against us. We wanted to be ahead as it’s always difficult against Saracens when you fall behind.

“We’ve still got one to play and it’s always a decent game against Quins, so we’ll just have to see what develops.”

Bristol began strongly to take a fifth-minute lead. Saracens conceded two penalties in quick succession to give the hosts an attacking platform from where Harry Randall made a dart for the line with Batley on hand to pick up and score, showing great leg strength.

MacGinty converted and added a penalty after Earl was penalised for a deliberate knock-on but Saracens soon responded with a penalty from Farrell as Bristol’s Siva Naulago was yellow-carded for another deliberate knock-on. It was debatable whether a penalty try should have been awarded but referee Karl Dickson and his supporting officials thought otherwise.

Despite Naulago’s absence, Bears were next on the scoreboard with a second straightforward penalty from MacGinty. Naulago was still in the final seconds of his sin binning when Saracens reduced the arrears. Bristol prop Ellis Genge dropped the ball in his 22 and was made to pay for his error when Itoje took and offload from Gonzalez to crash over the line. Farrell converted before Daly added a penalty to bring the scores level after 27 minutes.

Four minutes later, Saracens took the lead for the first time. A superb touch-finder from Farrell gained his side a position in the opposition 22, with Itoje taking advantage by forcing his way over from close range for his second try. Daly converted and then kicked a penalty to earn the visitors a 23-13 interval lead.

Bears badly needed the first score of the second half and they began it in impressive style to pin the Londoners in their own 22 for a sustained period of pressure. The home side turned down three kickable penalties in favour of more attacking options but somehow Saracens kept their line intact and broke up to get the next score through a third penalty from Daly.

Bristol’s woes continued when MacGinty left the field to fail an HIA but they received a huge boost when both Itoje and Earl were sin-binned in quick succession. Itoje went for a high shot on Steven Luatua and Earl for a deliberate offside.

Bears brought on Thacker and the hooker’s first task was to finish off a driving line-out, but their opponents remarkably replied with a penalty from Daly despite playing with only 13. Itoje did not return with Theo McFarland coming on to bring his side up to 14 and in time to see Segun finish off some excellent ball-retention.

Earl returned to see Saracens seal victory with the best try of the afternoon when Daly and Lucio Cinti tore Bristol’s defence to shreds before Gonzalez was provided with the scoring pass.

Bristol Bears: 15. Max Malins 14. Siva Naulago, 13. Benhard Janse van Rensburg, 12. James Williams, 11. Gabriel Ibitoye, 10. AJ MacGinty, 9. Harry Randall; 1. Ellis Genge, 2. Gabriel Oghre, 3. Kyle Sinckler, 4. James Dun, 5. Joe Batley, 6. Steven Luatua, 7. Fitz Harding (c), 8. Magnus Bradbury.

Replacements: 16. Harry Thacker, 17. Jake Woolmore, 18. Max Lahiff, 19. Josh Caulfield, 20. Jake Heenan, 21. Kieran Marmion, 22. Virimi Vakatawa, 23. Noah Heward.

Saracens : 15 Elliot Daly, 14 Rotimi Segun, 13 Lucio Cinti, 12 Nick Tompkins, 11 Tom Parton, 10 Owen Farrell (c), 9 Ivan van Zyl, 1 Mako Vunipola, 2 Jamie George, 3 Marco Riccioni, 4 Maro Itoje, 5 Hugh Tizard, 6 Juan Martin Gonzalez, 7 Ben Earl, 8 Tom Willis

Replacements: 16 Theo Dan, 17 Eroni Mawi, 18 Ollie Hoskins, 19 Nick Isiekwe, 20 Theo McFarland, 21 Billy Vunipola, 22 Aled Davies, 23 Alex Goode

Referee: Karl Dickson

Assistant Referees: Luke Pearce and Gareth Holsgrove

TMO: Andrew Jackson