Bristol (12) 36
Try: Rees-Zammit 2, Moroni, Heward, Ravouvou, Oghre Cons: Jordan 2, Williams
Newcastle (17) 27
Try: McCallum, Spencer 2, Leatherbarrow Cons: Conon 2 Pens: connon
Bristol Bears’ second-half strength saw them edge past Newcastle 36-27 as the Red Bulls saw the chance to end their wait for a Prem win slip through their fingers.
The win sees Bristol move up to second place in the table heading into the weekend’s remaining matches, with Louis Rees-Zammit crossing twice and Matias Moroni, Kalaveti Ravouvou, Noah Heward and Gabriel Oghre also scoring.
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Newcastle led for most of the time until the 56th minute, and walked away with their first point of the campaign after a stunning brace from Oli Spencer, plus tries from Murray McCallum and Ollie Leatherbarrow, earned them a try bonus point.
But the dam burst once the hosts took the lead and although Bristol’s indiscipline saw them finish with 13 players on the field, they had enough to claim their fifth win in their last six Prem games and limit Newcastle to a 19th consecutive Prem defeat.
After showing promising signs during the first half of their loss to Bath six days ago and with two European Challenge Cup wins under their belt this month, the Red Bulls came out quickly, playing Bristol in their own high-speed attacking game.
McCallum pounced on six minutes to cap a deft passage of varied attacking play, before Spencer made it 10-0 when the winger collected the ball from the ground and launched himself over Ravouvou to land with one hand.
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Bristol showed how quickly things can turn with two tries in two minutes as space opened up for Rees-Zammit, who had time to raise his arm in the air before diving for the first.
The Welshman, playing as a full-back, passed again almost instantly, but although he was held on as he opened a hole in the Newcastle defence, he flicked the pass to Moroni on the shoulder to run.
Newcastle still had the last word of the half when Leatherbarrow went under the posts as the Red Bulls went ahead in numbers to make the score 17-12.
Brett Connon’s penalty stretched the visitors’ lead to 20-12 early in the second half and marked the moment for Bears boss Pat Lam to begin making changes, which quickly bore fruit when replacement Oghre and Heward exchanged passes for the latter to score.
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Newcastle struck once again when Sammy Arnold broke the line, Alex Hearle slipped between two defenders and Spencer on his outside added his second for bonus points.
But Bristol’s fresh legs, led by a rampaging Ellis Genge, put them away with three tries in 10 minutes.
Ravouvou ran in on the overlap, Rees-Zammit skipped three Newcastle players for his second and Oghre scored after a maul, with Batley’s 20-minute red card for contact with the head in a tackle being the only major issue on his day.
Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam told BBC Radio Bristol:
“Five hard-earned points, congratulations to Newcastle, they really gave it to us. We made changes in the group and we weren’t really getting the ball on the front foot, they slowed down our ball, but in the end a lot of quality showed up.
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“It’s good to get the five points and, most importantly, with the six-day turnaround until Sale (January 2), we’ve refreshed some of the lads who didn’t play today.
“It was one of those games where we again scored and then let them in, we knew they would score most of their tries if they went in there so we’re not talking about anything free. “Some of the penalties that were called on us that put them there in the beginning were certainly questionable but we have to look at ourselves.
“What frustrated us was that a lot of our line breaks clearly allowed offside in stopping some of those plays, but I loved the way the guys stayed and handled the last 10 minutes, and with 13, 14 men they got the five points.”
Bristol board: Rees-Zammit; Heward, Moroni, Williams, Ravouvou; Jordan, Randall; Lahiff, Thacker, Chawatama; Taylor, Batley, Owen, Harding (c), Mata.
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Replacements: Oghre, Genge, Halliwell, Rubiolo, Ivanishvili, Wolstenholme, Worsley, Lane.
Brothel: Kalaveti Ravouvou (77)
Red card 20 minutes: Batley (66)
Newcastle: Grayson; Spencer, Hearle, Arnold, Obatoyinbo; Connon, Benitez Cruz; Brocklebank, McGuigan (c), McCallum; Usher, De Chaves, Gordon, Christie, Leatherbarrow.
Replacements: Fletcher, Hancock, Palframan, Baker, Mafi, Elliott, Hutchison, Chamberlain.
Referee: George Selwood