Bristol Bears will remember this as the struggle that briefly took them top of the Gallagher Prem. Completely lacking in fluency for most of the game, they won. For Sale Sharks it was a fourth league defeat by two points or fewer, leaving them with the mentality that they need to be unblemished this year to have a play-off chance.
Santiago Grondona and Tom Curry were involved in the mêlée at the end of England’s win over Argentina in November. They shared a field again here, though it was Curry and Ellis Genge who were top of the bill. It was a cuddly bout between team-mates, scuffling and smashing, then making up afterwards, even if Genge taunted his compatriot about his “small mouth”.
Please enable cookies and other technologies to view this content. You can update your cookies preferences any time using privacy manager.
Enable cookiesAllow cookies once
It is a sign that Bristol have developed from last season that they finally crossed the tryline in the final play of the first half from pick-and-go drives, in the face of desperate, ferocious Sale tackling. It was their third opportunity of the half: the first was ended by a timely Luke Cowan-Dickie turnover penalty, the second by a fumble. “Who knocked that on?” Pat Lam, the Bristol director of rugby, barked, frustrated. They had their try through Joe Owen.
Owen’s score settled home fears that Sale were going to do it all over again — this fixture having provided one of the shock results of 2024-25. When these sides met at Ashton Gate just over a year ago, Bristol were at the top of the league and averaging more than 38 points a game, while the Sharks hadn’t won away from home all season. They returned north as 38-0 victors. “I’d love history to repeat itself,” Alex Sanderson, the Sale director of rugby, said. “But it’s a different season, different challenge.”
Moroni finishes off a sweeping Bristol move in style
TOM SANDBERG/SHUTTERSTOCK EDITORIAL
There was similar context to this encounter. Bristol had won five games in a row and were in the top four. Sale were in seventh, hadn’t won away from home and are in a state of inconsistency, Marco Bortolami having departed as head coach a fortnight ago. “It feels like a game of gravitas,” was Sanderson’s view of Bristol-Sale matches; a clash that inspires his team.
The good version of “Sale are annoying to play against”. It was no surprise that they did well in a fixture that had two scuffles inside five minutes. The second was a coming together involving Curry and Genge after Bristol had begun their night of scrum dominance. The first followed Viliame Mata’s high tackle on Alex Wills. The Fiji No8 hit the wing hard and low with an arm verging on swinging, but it was only a penalty because Wills had dropped significantly in height.
Wills’s evening was over after he failed a head-injury assessment and he was replaced by Gus Warr, shifting Raffi Quirke to the flank. Quirke looked every inch a wing when he tore upfield from one loose ball, though he dropped a return pass from Joe Carpenter near the Bristol tryline. He chased and harried like a full-time option out wide.
In Bristol’s back three, Louis Rees-Zammit, the ink on his new long-term deal yet to dry, started at full back for the third successive round. The NFL weight has made Rees-Zammit more physical in heavy traffic, but we saw little of it as the Welshman hobbled off inside half an hour for a head-injury assessment and never returned. He passed his head-injury assessment but Bristol elected to keep him off as a precaution.
Ravouvou dots down before Williams’s conversion puts Bristol ahead in the 72nd minute
TOM SANDBERG/SHUTTERSTOCK
The first-half kicking was wide of the mark. Even George Ford’s drop-goal was off the menu, his attempt wobbling low and wide. Tom Jordan tried a selection of cute kicks with minimum success, while Harry Randall also failed to probe with the boot. It was from one easily marshalled kick by the counterattacking Joe Carpenter that Tom O’Flaherty scored the opener. Kalaveti Ravouvou should have done better in stopping him.
Sale started the second half well through Ernst van Rhyn from close range, but Bristol responded through Matías Moroni, Rees-Zammit’s replacement. Quirke had taken a knock to the knee in defence and Bristol eventually manipulated the ball around him on the wing. It was Quirke’s final, futile act. “I hope this doesn’t waylay him because it’s too many times he’s had to come back from injuries and it just sets you back a little bit every time, doesn’t it?” Sanderson said.
Rees-Zammit goes off for a head injury assessment in the first half
DAVID DAVIES/PA
While Rekeiti Maasi-White was in the sin-bin for a harsh rolling-away infringement, Bristol took the lead. Their first multi-phase attack of class featured breaks for Jordan and James Williams, and ended with Genge giving a pass to Ravouvou, who cut infield. They saw out the rest in the right part of the field.
Lam viewed it like a cup final: win this and at 10pm we have something to celebrate. There will be no priority for the league, even with injuries, and next week he will take a full-strength squad to the heat of South Africa.
Bristol Bears: Tries Owen (40min), Moroni (54), Ravouvou (71). Cons Jordan, Williams.
Sale Sharks: Tries O’Flaherty (16), Van Rhyn (43). Cons Ford 2. Pen Ford (49).
Bristol L Rees-Zammit (M Moroni 28); N Heward, B Janse van Rensburg, J Williams, K Ravouvou; T Jordan (S Worsley 78), H Randall (K Marmion 50); E Genge (M Lahiff 72), G Oghre (H Thacker 72), L Chawatama (G Kloska 28), P Rubiolo, J Owen, S Grondona, F Harding, V Mata (B Grondona 58).
Sale J Carpenter (M Louw 72); T O’Flaherty, R du Preez, R Maasi-White (sin-bin 64), A Wills (G Warr 1; G Wehr 55); G Ford, R Quirke; B Rodd (S McIntyre 60), L Cowan-Dickie (N Jibulu 60), J Harper (P Bell 60), B Bamber, E van Rhyn, J Vermeulen (T Burrow 45), S Dugdale, T Curry (J Gilmore 74).
Referee J James (RFU).