Bristol Bears handed play-offs blow as Leicester Tigers storm Ashton Gate (2025)

Leicester Tigers beat Bristol Bears 36-19 at Ashton Gate on Sunday in Round 14 of the 2024/25 Gallagher Premiership

Bristol Bears’ play-off hopes were dealt a blow on Easter Sunday as Leicester Tigers produced a masterful defensive performance to win 36-19 at Ashton Gate.

Bristol got nothing from the match as they crossed the try line just three times 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.

READ MORE: Bristol Bears 19-36 Leicester Tigers LIVE: Reaction and highlights from Ashton Gate

Bristol were hit by a series of late changes ahead of kick off, with lock Joe Batley forced to withdraw having been named in the side after a three month injury layoff. Winger Jake Bates and centre James Williams also suffered minor injuries in the club’s final training session of the week to cause disruption in the ranks ahead of kick-off.

Although the Bears were bolstered by the return of USA international AJ MacGinty at fly-half, making his first start since December, with x-factor winger Gabriel Ibitoye also back from a three-month injury absence with a hamstring and calf issue having both starred in the 54-24 thrashing of Tigers at Christmas.

Leicester flew out the blocks with a try with less than three minutes on the clock as England star van Poortvliet exploded through a gap at the edge of a ruck and put his head down for the corner. The scrum-half was cut down by Rich Lane but pooped the ball up to Radwan to dive over the line.

Bristol hit back in sublime style as Ravouvou produced the most magical assist of the season with a dose of Fijian brilliance as he flicked the ball behind his back 10 metres while looking in the wrong direction, all despite having just been tackled by Nicky Smith, to free Ibitoye down the left wing to run in.

But that was Bristol’s attacking highlight of the first half as Leicester gave them a masterclass in slowing down the ball at the break down and playing territorial rugby, repeatedly forcing Ibitoye and co to turn and field kicks in behind.

Feeling the pressure of being unable to break down Leicester’s packed defensive line, Bristol were increasingly taking more risks and it turned out to be one too many when a trade mark Ibityoe basketball-style pass was picked off by Ollie Hassell-Collins who ran in untouched.

The sparky Jack van Poortvliet then opened up a gap for himself as he sold a dummy to Benhard Janse van Rensburg to dart through a gap and crash over the tryline to ramp up the pressure on the hosts.

Handre Pollard added the conversion and a penalty to keep the scoreboard ticking, and moments later it looked like his South African compariote Hanro Liebenberg had secured the bonus point try for the visitors after gathering a loose pass from Fitz Harding and touching down but a TMO review spotted a head on head collision from Joe Heyes in the build-up to earn the prop a yellow card and the score was scrubbed off.

Trailing 22-5 at the break, Bristol struck first in the second half with Ibitoye’s basketball-style pass this time serving up a line break for Rich Lane who drew the final defender to put Ravouvou away.

But Leicester were in clinical form and when Hanro Liebenberg stole a lineout deep in the Bears 22 the ball was shipped through the hands to Steward who showed his international class with an in to out step to go beyond replacement full back Benjamin Elizalde.

A Janse van Rensburg break then put the ball on a plate for Randall to zip in and make it 19-29 and provide a life line. With 11 minutes to go, Tigers centre Solomone Kata was shown a yellow card for a head on head collision with AJ MacGinty but the Bears were unable to capitalise on the extra man, with Randall having a second try scrubbed off for a knock on.

And with the result settled lock Henderson crashed over the whitewash after breaking off the back of a driving maul.

The Bears will have to quickly regroup now with a trip to Northampton Saints on Saturday with the defending champions looking to tune up ahead of their mammoth Champions Cup semi-final with Leinster.

Bristol Bears : 15. Rich Lane, 14. Deago Bailey, 13. Kalaveti Ravouvou, 12. Benhard Janse van Rensburg, 11. Gabriel Ibitoye, 10. AJ MacGinty, 9. Harry Randall; 1. Ellis Genge, 2. Gabriel Oghre, 3. George Kloska, 4. James Dun, 5. Josh Caulfield, 6. Steven Luatua, 7. Fitz Harding (c), 8. Viliame Mata

Replacements: 16. Harry Thacker, 17. Yann Thomas, 18. Max Lahiff, 19. Benjamin Grondona, 20. Jake Heenan, 21. Kieran Marmion, 22. Benjamin Elizalde, 23. Joe Jenkins

Leicester Tigers: 15 Freddie Steward, 14 Adam Radwan, 13 Solomone Kata, 12 Joseph Woodward, 11 Ollie Hassell-Collins, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Jack van Poortvliet; 1 Nicky Smith, 2 Julián Montoya (c), 3 Joe Heyes, 4 Cameron Henderson, 5 Ollie Chessum, 6 Hanro Liebenberg, 7 Tommy Reffell, 8 Olly Cracknell

Replacements: 16 Charlie Clare, 17 James Whitcombe, 18 Will Hurd, 19 Matt Rogerson, 20 Emeka Ilione, 21 Ben Youngs, 22 Jamie Shillcock, 23 Dan Kelly

Referee: Karl Dickson

Assistant Referees: Jonathan Cook and Calum Howard

TMO: Peter Allan