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Piers O’Conor of Bristol Bears(Image: Rogan/JMP)

Bristol Bears verdict from Wasps defeat: Pat Lam's gamble, Magic Malins, selfish moments

Bristol Bears writer John Evely and rugby reporter Sam Bytheway take a closer looker at some of the key points from 59-35 defeat at the Ricoh Arena

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Bristol Bears were beaten 59-35 away at Wasps on Sunday in a defeat which has done serious damage to the club's play-off ambitions.

Wasps ran in nine tries against Bristol at the Ricoh Arena with: Jack Willis, Josh Bassett, Tom Cruse, Will Rowlands, Zach Kibirige, Dan Robson, Tom Willis and Gabriel Oghre touching down while referee Ian Tempest awarded a penalty try.

The Bears did salvage a four-try bonus point from the game after crossing the whitewash through Max Malins(2), Piers O'Conor, Peter McCabe and another penalty try.

Bristol Bears writer John Evely and rugby reporter Sam Bytheway take a closer looker at some of the key points from the game.

Malins shows that Sheedy isn’t the only option

In the early stages of the game Bristol hardly looked like they’d get a point on the board, never mind scoring five tries, a big part of these successes was Max Malins.

It looked originally like the Bears would miss Callum Sheedy at fly-half with the backs struggling to get going but once the game settled Malins grew into the contest and shone like the star of the future he is going to be.

The Bears fly-half wasn’t just the best player for Bristol, he was the outstanding performer from either side as the Saracens loanee led the Bears successful fight for a bonus point and was rewarded with two tries for himself.

Malins beat seven defenders and made 86 metres attack, numbers usually reserved for the powerful running of the likes of Semi Radradra and Charles Piutau.

But the former England U20s star, who is still just 23, flourished with ball in-hand and showed an electric burst of pace for both his tries and also his handling ability in the build-up to Niyi Adeolokun’s disallowed effort and Piers O’Conor’s try.

As well as his strong attacking play, Malins was also faultless off the tee kicking landing 100 percent of his penalties.

With the games coming thick and fast with Challenge Cup quarter-final, the final two rounds of the Premiership and the potential for European and Premiership semi-finals the ability for Pat Lam to use another option at fly-half may prove vital to the success of this Bears side.

Before this game we were all wondering who was Bristol’s alternative option to Sheedy at fly-half with Ian Madigan moving on in the summer and was that player good enough to play a key role for big chunks of the season. Was it Tiff Eden? Ioan Lloyd perhaps?

We are wondering no longer - his name is Max Malins and he is very much ready.

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Max Malins of Bristol Bears kicks(Image: Robbie Stephenson/JMP)

Winning the final hour

You can’t go into a match as significant underdogs away at a team who are in red hot form and give them cheap points early on but that is exactly what happened on Sunday.

Wasps recorded the second quickest four-try bonus point in Premiership history as they had crossed the line four times in the space of 18 minutes to go 28-0 up.

You don’t come back from that.

Most irritatingly for Lam no doubt is the fact the first two tries which really did the damage were avoidable as well. Unfortunately Chris Cook was responsible for Wasps’ first two tries, getting charged down for the first inside two minutes and then breaking the defensive line looking for an unlikely intercept for the second to leave a gapping hole.

The good news is from 20 minutes on Bristol responded well and won the next 60 minutes 35-33, if only they had been in the contest at that point.

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Piers O’Conor of Bristol Bears gets away from Jacob Umaga of Wasps(Image: Rogan/JMP)

Bears must cut out the selfishness

For the second week in a row Bristol blew a prime scoring chance through apparent selfishness or not having a clear head at the vital moment.

In midweek against Northampton, Harry Thacker failed to give a scoring pass to Semi Radradra who was free inside him with one man to beat, opting to take on the Saints man himself before getting tackled. I wrote then that Bristol must capitalise on opportunities like that because in big games they have to be clinical to win them and so it proved on Sunday.

The Bears could have made the perfect riposte to going behind when Piers O’Conor broke the line and looked to have Chris Cook inside him in a potential scoring position but this time the centre decided to hold on and try the impossible alone. He might not have seen his support man but considering there are no fans in the grounds he can’t be accused of not hearing the shouts.

Bristol are now essentially involved in knockout rugby for the rest of the 2019/20 season and must take chances like that if they are going to be successful.


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Bonus point could prove vital

Pat Lam has taken a significant gamble. The Bears are out of the play-off places and down to fifth place in the league with just two rounds remaining.

It means someone else is going to have to slip up for Bristol to be involved in the knockout rounds of the Premiership.

The battle for the remaining three play-off places, with Exeter Chiefs having already qualified, will almost certainly go down to the final day of the season with Wasps, Bath, Sale Sharks and Bristol all pushing for a Premiership semi-final.

Wasps’ victory over the Bears takes them two points above their rivals, but without a bonus point for Bristol that gap could have been three.

Here is a long at the contenders' run-ins:

Second place Wasps

Round 21

Harlequins (A)

Round 22

Exeter Chiefs (H)

Third place Bath

Round 21

Gloucester (H)

Round 22

Saracens (A)

Fourth place Sale Sharks

Round 21

Northampton Saints (A)

Round 22

Worcester Warriors (H)

Fifth place Bristol Bears

Round 21

Leicester Tigers (H)

Round 22

London Irish (A)