Rugby / Bristol Bears
Bears narrowly beat Chiefs in attritional battle
When a Bristol Bears player lies on the floor these days, one fears the worst. Against Exeter Chiefs, it was Josh Carrington, laid out low following a hefty collision.
A groggy Carrington made his way off the pitch to be added to an injury list almost as long as the queues of traffic around Bristol on Saturday afternoon.
We are only three games into the season and already Louis Rees-Zammit, Harry Randall, AJ MacGinty, Gabriel Ibitoye, Max Lahiff, Steven Luatua, James Williams, Noah Heward, Rich Lane and Joe Jenkins are among the casualties list, with experienced Argentina international Matías Moroni brought in as a short-term ‘medical joker’.
Moroni was only watching on from the stands on Saturday, however, as despite the continued depletion of Pat Lam’s squad, Bristol secured their second win of the new Prem season after 80 minutes of attrition at Ashton Gate, winning by 18 points to 14.
Bill Mata dived over for Bears’ first try after a typically barnstorming run down the right wing but that was soon cancelled out as Henry Slade scored for the Chiefs before the England international converted his own try.
A dangerous tackle from Tom Jordan after half an hour led to an Ashton Gate first: a 20-minute red card, and Ben Hammersley scored for the visitors soon afterwards to give Exeter a 14-8 lead at half-time.
“Big don’t mean slow when you’re talking about Big Bill” 💨
Bill Mata seals the deal after a hard-fought battle against Exeter
📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/fUYDHiPGCM
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) October 11, 2025
Fifteen minutes into the second half, some scrummaging dark arts by Ellis Genge won a penalty for Bristol and from the resulting lineout in the corner, Gabriel Oghre was the man who came up with the ball after a powerful rolling maul in which Genge himself lost a boot.
Sam Worsley’s conversion nudged Bristol ahead by just a single point and it remained that way until the last kick of the match.
Following Max Pepper’s time in the bin for a deliberate knock-on, Exeter were unable to make the most of the one-man advantage due to some heroic defending from the Bears.
But penalty followed penalty and it appeared to be a double blow for Bristol when Exeter finally scored and Fitz Harding was shown a yellow card for an infringement in the same play.
Bristol captain Harding was walking off the field but then he extraordinarily walked back on as his card was overturned and Exeter’s try ruled out.
Harding expertly marshalled the Bears defence all afternoon and Exeter failed to score a single point in the second half as Bears won by four points thanks to Worsley’s penalty at the death.
Main photo: Bristol Bears
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