Bristol Bears 25-14 Leicester Tigers: Impressive win for home side on opening night of new Premiership season

Bristol Bears made a strong start to the Gallagher Premiership season with an impressive performance to beat Leicester Tigers at Ashton Gate in the opening match of the new campaign; Gabriel Ibitoye was voted Player of the Match and scored two tries

Gabriel Ibitoye scored two tries as Bristol opened the Gallagher Premiership season in style with an impressive 25-14 victory over a lethargic Leicester at Ashton Gate.

The Tigers looked half asleep when the Bears wing scored twice in the first half hour as the hosts took an unassailable 25-0 lead from which the visitors were unable to recover.

Harry Thacker was also on the try list for Bristol with AJ MacGinty adding two conversions. James Williams added two penalties.

Dan Kelly and Hanro Liebenberg crossed for Leicester, with Charlie Atkinson and Jamie Shillcock each adding a conversion.

Bristol made an explosive start, taking the lead in the second minute. A misdirected kick from Leicester scrum-half Joe Powell gave the hosts an attacking lineout from which they capitalized when Ibitoye ran onto a well-judged Rich Lane kick to score.

MacGinty missed the touchline conversion, as did Atkinson with a 45-yard penalty attempt, so Ibitoye’s try was the only score of the first quarter in which the home side looked sharper while Leicester continued to do elementals.
errors.

From one of these handling errors, Ibitoye seizes the lost ball to kick it 60 meters then win an alignment five meters from the opposing line. From there, Bears produced an unstoppable drive which resulted in a try for Thacker.

Leicester Tigers made a losing start to the new Premiership season

From the kick-off, Bristol scored again. The irrepressible Ibitoye was sent on a 35-yard run that ended with an attempt to hold off Cameron Henderson to score. MacGinty converted both and the shell-shocked Tigers trailed 19-0.

However, MacGinty was soon forced off the field with a leg problem, soon followed by prop Jay Tyack, who suffered a serious arm injury.

Those setbacks did not deter the home side, who increased their lead through a Williams penalty to leave the toothless Tigers 22 points behind at the break.

Three minutes after the restart the lead increased when Williams kicked another penalty, before Leicester made some changes to try to turn the situation around.

It paid immediate dividends when one of the substitutes, former Bristol player Tom Whiteley, took the lead and when the home defense hesitated, Kelly took the opportunity to steal possession and score.

Bristol brought in former captain Stephen Luatua and new signing Virimi Vakatawa, the French international center, but it was the visitors who picked up the only points of the final quarter when a well-timed pass from Whiteley sent Liebenberg .