Bristol Bears add to Leicester's woes with 20-23 win

Leicester Tigers 20-23 Bristol Bears, Welford Road
Scorecard

Bristol Bears came up with a spirited performance as they edged out Leicester Tigers 20-23 in their Gallagher Premiership clash at Welford Road on Saturday.

The defeat means Leicester will have to wait on their relegation fate with nine points separating them from bottom placed Newcastle Falcons while Bristol with their eighth win now are at ninth place.

Leicester entered the game after losing the services of Manu Tuilagi for the remainder of the season and in the first 30 minutes, George Ford and Callum Sheedy exchanged couple of penalties apiece as the scores were levelled 6-6.

A combination of Guy Thompson and Jonny May was clinical in sending Jordan Olowofela over the line in the 30th minute but that was cancelled out when Sheedy dotted down in the 36th minute as the scores were 11-11 heading into the break.

The Tigers were quick to get off the block with a 48th minute penalty kick from Ford and a minute later they suffered a setback with Matt Toomua sin-binned. Despite the setback. Ford kicked another three-pointer to make the scoreline 17-11 but Pat Lam's men fought back with a try from Dan Thomas in the 58th minute.

As the final 10 minutes was approaching, Ford with his fifth penalty kick stretched the home side's tally to 20 points but Harry Thacker scored the decisive try in the 75th minute that was improved by Ian Madigan as the visitors secured a 20-23 win.