BRISTOL WIN 110-POINT THRILLER AGAINST BULLS SIDE WITH 10 SPRINGBOKS
Bulls 49 Bristol 61
Bristol Bears ran riot in a remarkable match that included 110 points as they secured their place in the Investec Champions Cup knockout phase.
Pat Lam’s side came away with a 61-49 victory over the Bulls in Pretoria, despite the hosts fielding 10 Springboks in their starting XV in the hope of registering a first win of the group campaign.
Bristol, on the other hand, were without a number of big names including Louis Rees-Zammit, AJ MacGinty, Steven Luatua and Gabriel Ibitoye, while Ellis Genge and Harry Randall were both named on the bench.
Tthe Bulls were swept aside regardless at Loftus Versfeld after Bristol started like a freight train, running in three tries inside the opening 10 minutes and seven in total to build a 47-28 lead at the interval.
Wing Noah Heward, who was named player of the match, crossed twice and there were also touchdowns for Benhard Janse van Rensburg, Max Lahiff, Kalaveti Ravouvou and Kieran Marmion.
The Bulls offered more resistance in the second half but Bristol continued to fire shots with Heward completing his hat-trick, Pedro Rubiolo breaching the whitewash and Ravouvou running in his second.
The Bulls came away with one losing bonus point for scoring four tries, but were denied a second after some heroic Bristol defence held them up over the line as the final act of the match.
A third win in as many outings in the competition lifts the Bears to the top of Pool Four above main rivals Northampton Saints and Bordeaux Bègles, who collide at Stade Chaban-Delmas on Sunday.
Heward praised Bristol’s training methods for their famous win in Pretoria. “It was challenging but that’s just the way we train, we do it every week,” he said. “The people who know this team know we love to run the ball, we love high ball in play. It was really challenging, but we live like that and that’s the way we do things.”
Bristol captain Fitz Harding added: “We spoke all week about how hard we are going to have to work. With the heat, with the altitude, we knew the challenge that was coming and I just love the way the boys fought and stuck at it. We were under the pump for a lot of that game but we stayed calm.”
Leicester also racked up a monster score, defeating Bayonne – and former Leicester favourite Manu Tuilagi – 57-14 at home. Fly-half Billy Searle scored a hat-trick in the second half, as part of a dominant win that keeps Tigers’ knockout hopes alive. Just. However, they are next up against the so-far undefeated Stormers, in Cape Town.
Match details
Scoring sequence 0-5 Janse van Rensburg try, 0-7 Jordan con, 0-12 Lahiff try, 0-14 Jordan con, 0-19 Heward try, 0-21 Jordan con, 5-21 Rudolph try, 7-21 Pollard con, 7-26 Ravouvou try, 7-28 Jordan con, 12-28 Jacobs try, 14-28 Pollard con, 14-33 Heward try, 14-35 Jordan con, 14-40 Marmion try, 14-42 Jordan con, 19-42 Jacobs try, 21-42 Pollard con, 28-42 penalty try, 28-47 Heward try, 33-47 Kriel try, 35-47 Pollard con, 35-52 Rubiolo try, 35-54 Jordan con, 35-59 Ravouvou try, 35-61 Jordan con, 40-61 De Klerk ty, 42-61 Pollard con, 47-61 Le Roux try, 49-61 Pollard con.
Bulls Le Roux (Petersen 56), De Klerk (Gans 60), Kriel, Vorster, Jacobs (Burger 63), Pollard, Papier, Wessels (Van der Merwe 57), J. Grobbelaar, W. Louw (Smith 51), Wiese (Steenekamp 57) , Nortje, Van Staden, E. Louw, Rudolph. Sin-bin Le Roux.
Bristol Lane, Heward (Thacker, 60), Janse Van Rensburg (Moroni 20; Williams 65) Williams, Ravouvou, Jordan (Worsley 67), Marmion (Owen 60), Lahiff (Halliwell 46), Oghre, Kloska (Genge 40), Rubiolo, Batley, S. Grondona, Harding (B. Grondona 64), B. Mata. Sin-bin Lane.
Referee P Brousset (France).
2026-01-10T16:10:39Z