First, a simple stat: Bristol notched a 10th consecutive away win in the Premiership. A record for the league. Impressive. Second, another: they scored the most points any team have ever registered against Leicester at Welford Road, as much as any have ever scored against the Tigers anywhere in the Premiership. Impressive again, and this time beginning to hint at what went on here.
But, really, numbers are inadequate. In an extraordinary era of attacking rugby in the Premiership, Bristol must be ranked the most outrageous of them all. They should be listed as a national treasure. Rugby when played like this becomes an art, an entertainment that does not require any grounding in the sport to enjoy.
True, the second half did not match the first, but that first period, in which the Bears scored six tries for 40 points, was so otherworldly that they need not touch a rugby ball again. Their status as darlings of English rugby had been established for good.
They had the bonus-point fourth racked up by the half-hour mark, Viliame Mata finishing after the latest play from their own 22, with Benhard Janse van Rensburg and Gabriel Ibitoye, both breathtaking throughout, combining to send another star of the show, Kalaveti Ravouvou, on one of countless uncontainable runs. Breathtaking is the word.
This conjured memories of the four tries Bristol scored in their home semi-final against Harlequins in 2021. On that occasion they were blown away by Quins’ subsequent comeback, one of the most extraordinary matches the Premiership has ever seen. This time, they merely raised their level further.
An apt vignette followed within a few minutes. Leicester were pushing hard within five yards of Bristol’s line, when Fitz Harding, absolutely tireless in the back row, pounced on a loose ball; Joe Owen, a lock forward for crying out loud, slipped a pass out of the back of his hand to Steven Luatua, who beat a couple, and Bristol were away. Ravouvou found Ibitoye, who twisted and turned his way further out of their half, before flinging a one-handed, overhead pass to Rich Lane, who ran it in from halfway.
Welford Road, full to bursting at Christmas time, must have almost felt moved to applaud. But the TMO came in with news of a possible fumble, right at the start of the move, which felt a bit like a decorator suggesting a coat of magnolia across the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel because of a little crack in the masonry somewhere. The inquest began, but thankfully, for the sake of divine art, the fumbling had been at the fingers of a Leicester hand, so the try stood. Never would tedious pedantry have undone such sublimity, had the fumbling been found to be that of a Bristol hand.
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That was a high point, but Bristol were full of artistry for almost the entirety of that first half, their fingertip passing and angles of running bemusing a champion team on their own patch. It almost does not feel real at times and a legitimate question may be, is such rugby a realistic policy in pursuit of a championship of their own? The past two weeks in Europe have shown that high-class teams, of a sort not found in the Premiership, can still prove too much, with Leinster and La Rochelle dismantling Bristol in sobering fashion, but when things click for the Bears the result is next to unanswerable.
They scored on every visit to the Leicester 22 in that first half. Ibitoye finished their sixth on the stroke of half-time, from relatively straightforward handling down the line, but a brace by Gabriel Oghre in the first 15 minutes, followed by Ravouvou’s first of two on the 20-minute mark, were tries of the highest class, exhilarating to behold.
No insane comebacks this time. Leicester did add to a brace of Ollie Hassell-Collins tries in the first quarter, the first which actually opened the scoring, with Freddie Steward scoring their third 10 minutes into the second half, but the brilliant Van Rensburg charged down Hassell-Collins to score on the hour, before Ravouvou claimed his second in the last 10 minutes with an 85-metre run to the line.
The Tigers did at least come away with a bonus point of their own, after Josh Bassett went over at the death, but points become almost irrelevant next to this sort of rugby. Bristol are defying the rest of English rugby to dare to play as they do. They are changing the game for everyone.
