Bristol keep up pressure on Exeter after late penalty try sees off Saracens

This was not the most compelling argument for summer rugby, but Bristol have used the lockdown to inject themselves with pragmatism. Anyone looking for Covid-19 metamorphoses after five months of inactivity would been hard pressed to detect any difference with defences dominating on a damp afternoon, but it was a signal success for the enterprising Bears because it was the ugliest of victories.

It was a meeting between the rising and the crestfallen. Bristol are not afraid to voice their ambition and their latest high-profile recruit, Semi Radradra, made his debut in the centre. The Fijian may as well have been sitting in the empty stands during an opening half in which he received a solitary pass, and that was when the referee was playing advantage for yet another breakdown infringement. He did treble his tally after the break.

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Radradra was used as a decoy a few times, but Bristol struggled to find space with Saracens, led by Maro Itoje, Billy Vunipola and the wing Rotimi Segun, preventing ball-carriers getting into a stride and taking advantage of the belated decision of referees in the Premiership to inspect what players on the attacking side get up to at the breakdown.

Bristol were forced to kick hurriedly, inviting the counterattack, and another reason why Radradra was left to wonder why he had swapped the French climate for the British summer rain was that the home side lost four of their lineouts in the first 35 minutes. Saracens should have led comfortably at the interval, but they only had two Alex Goode penalties to show for their territorial advantage. They only looked threatening in possession when the Vunipola brothers were in possession and failed to build on their early six-point lead.

One of Saracens’ try scorers eight months ago was the back rower Ben Earl. He was involved again, but in the opposition ranks having joined Bristol on a season’s loan. He came on at the start of the second half for Nathan Hughes and his first touch was to claim a Harry Randall grubber before being tackled five metres from the line.

Bristol had more about them after the break, not for the first time this season, as if needing to be told where they were going wrong. They started to exploit their one clear advantage, which lay in the scrum, where Mako Vunipola was warned early to improve his technique or reflect on in the sin-bin. But the obduracy of Saracens, in training for next month’s European Champions Cup quarter-final in Leinster, continued to frustrate them.

The home side’s defence was as organised as Saracens’ Callum Sheedy’s third-quarter penalties came after Goode and Callum Hunter-Hill were forced to hold on to the ball having been isolated and his third, after Goode had restored the visitors’ lead, followed another powerful scrum. Saracens had two opportunities to tilt a tight match decisively their way when they kicked two penalties to touch: the first ended with Kyle Sinckler, on his Bristol debut from the bench, infringing at the breakdown and the second was thwarted by aggressive counter-rucking.

The match produced 36 penalties and when Max Lahiff entered a ruck from the side, Goode put his side ahead for the third time. There were so many infringements that there was little continuity, only pockets of individualism: Luke Morahan had a solo try ruled out after Harry Thacker was ruled to have cleared his path by blocking Itoje and after breaking three tackles to get into the Saracens’ 22, Thacker lost control of the ball.

It was a lineout that won it for Bristol. Aled Davies’s box-kick had more height than distance. Segun tried to flick it on near halfway, but it went forward and was picked up by Goode in an offside position. Sheedy kicked the penalty to within six yards of the line and Siale Piutau touched down after a drive. A review revealed he had been tackled into touch by Jamie George after he had entered a ruck from the side. The England hooker was sent to the sin-bin and a penalty try awarded. There was still time for Saracens to force three attacking lineouts but Bristol held firm to climb to second in the table.

“To get to where we want to be, you have to be able to win like that and we would not have done so last season,” said the Bristol head coach, Pat Lam, who felt Morahan’s try was wrongly ruled out because “Itoje had no chance of tackling him”. Mark McCall, Saracens’ director of rugby, questioned why his side had not been awarded a penalty try at the end when Lahiff saw yellow, but his side never looked like getting over the line.