Leicester Tigers beat Bristol Bears 36-19 at Ashton Gate on Sunday in Round 14 of the 2024/25 Gallagher Premiership
Sport John Evely Sports Writer 06:39, 21 Apr 2025
Bristol Bears suffered a 36-19 defeat to Leicester Tigers at Ashton Gate on Sunday in a blow to the club's bid to reach the Gallagher Premiership play-offs.
Bristol failed to secure even a bonus point from the game, touching down just three tries through Gabriel Ibitoye, Kalaveti Ravouvou and Harry Randall, with AJ MacGinty converting twice. The squandered line breaks from Bristol and a series of gifts for Leicester, who scored tries through Adam Radwan, Ollie Hassell-Collins, Jack van Poortvliet, Freddie Steward and Cameron Henderson saw the visitors leap-frog the Bears into second place in the table with Pat Lam’s side dropping down to third to put them in the dog-fight for the play-off places.
Full highlights - Bristol Bears vs Leicester Tigers
South West rugby writer Johh Evely takes a closer look at the individual performances from the Bristol Bears players…
15. Rich Lane - 7
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The full-back repeatedly looked highly dangerous with the ball in hand as he made breaks at will with his pace but the Bears failed to capitalise on the inroads he made. Produced a try-saving tackle after a break from van Poortvliet but the scrum-half sill managed to get an offload away for Radwan to touch down.
14. Deago Bailey - 6
The Bristol Bears academy product was drafted into the squad late in the day after Jack Bates suffered a hamstring injury in training on Friday. He showed his power on a couple of occasions with some meaningful runs, bumping off defenders, but was unable to really stress Tigers' defence.
13. Kalaveti Ravouvou - 8
The Fijian served up the most ridiculous offload of the season to open Bristol’s try-scoring as he offloaded the ball with a no-look, behind-the-back pass to Ibitoye while on his knees following a tackle from Nicky Smith. He then got his ninth try of the season after neat handling released the speedster down the left wing. It was a solid defensive display as well as he shone against Tigers once again.
12. Benhard Janse van Rensburg - 7
The centre got sold a dummy for van Poortvliet’s try in a rare mistake, but showed his attacking prowess with a classy break through the middle to set up a score for Randall.
11. Gabriel Ibitoye - 7
Back in the team after picking up a hamstring injury in January and then calf issue in training, the winger had moments of the sublime and the ridiculous. An off-target basket-ball style pass was intercepted and run in by Hassell-Collins for a cheap try but then in the second half a similar effort served up a try for Ravouvou. Earlier in the match the Fijian had produced a stunning offload to put Ibitoye in for the Bears’ opening try.
10. AJ MacGinty - 6
Making his first start since injuring his knee in the reserve fixture back in December the USA international repeatedly threaten with his elusive running game but got boxed in on a couple of occasions by Leicester’s suffocating defence. He kicked two from three off the tee.
9. Harry Randall - 7
The scrum-half was in support to take a pass from Janse van Rensburg following a break, to use his pace to score, and almost repeated the feat a few minutes later following a MacGinty run, but the scrum-half knocked the ball on trying to release and regather it after being chopped down short of the whitewash. The England international grew increasingly frustrated at Leicester's ability to slow the ball down at the ruck.
1. Ellis Genge - 6
The England star held his own in the scrum but Bristol too often than not opted for the tippy passes rather than putting their head down and making hard yards. When Genge did opt for the more physical option he was of course dangerous.
2. Gabriel Oghre - 6
The hooker was replaced after just half an hour with the lineout struggling.
3. George Kloska - 6
The tighthead was given a tough day in the scrum by Wales international Nicky Smith who won a couple of penalties of him.
4. James Dun - 6
The lock suffered a significant blow to the head straight off the restart for the second half as he rushed up to make the first tackle on Olly Cracknell, getting his angles wrong to end up colliding with the Leicester number eight’s head.
5. Josh Caulfield - 6
The second row battled hard throughout the contest having been drafted in the side late in the day for Joe Batley but couldn’t quite match the power of the Leicester locks.
6. Steven Luatua - 7
The flanker had an eye catching day with ball in hand as he managed to make a number of half breaks and was one of the few players able to get offloads away, but he also struggled to take a couple of line outs cleanly and the Bears collectively were well beaten at the breakdown.
7. Fitz Harding - 6
The skipper looked like a boxer out of a rocky movie by the final whistle after cutting his cheek open following a head-on-head collision that resulted in Joe Heyes being yellow carded. A little sloppy with possession on occasion and unable to match Leicester at the breakdown which caused all sorts of down-stream problems for the Bears. The flanker was also guilty of getting caught napping guarding the edge of the ruck to allow van Poortvliet space to snipe through for Tigers' opening try.
8. Viliame Mata - 6
The big Fijian didn’t get as many touches as Bristol would have liked as they lacked in directness in attack. When he did get his hands on the ball he made some good gain line busts but was too peripheral.
Replacements:
16. Harry Thacker - 5
17. Yann Thomas - 6
18. Max Lahiff - 7
19. Benjamin Grondona - 6
20. Jake Heenan - 6
21. Kieran Marmion - 5
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22. Benjamin Elizalde - 5
23. Joe Jenkins - 5
