Match Centre: Bristol Bears 26-26 Leicester Tigers
Charles Piutau was one of the try scorer for Bristol
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Bristol Bears 26-26 Leicester Tigers, Ashton Gate
AJ MacGinty missed a last-gasp penalty goal as both Bristol Bears and Leicester Tigers settled for a draw in the 12th round of the Gallagher Premiership at Ashton Gate on Saturday.
Despite the result, Bristol are languishing at the bottom of the table with 17 points while Leicester Tigers are at fifth position with 24 points.
It took Bristol just four minutes to open their account as Semi Radradra dived from close range but Callum Sheedy had a tough start as he missed a conversion and a drop goal in the 5th and 13th minutes respectively.
Leicester made use of Bristol's indiscipline as he kicked back to back penalties in the 16th and 20th minutes to take a lead of 5-6 but it was short lived as Charles Piutau touched down after collecting an offload from Ellis Genge.
Sheedy got the conversion right this time to make it 12-6 but Bristol were down to 14 players temporarily with Radradra sin-binned for a high tackle on Burns allowing Leicester to dominate the remainder of the first half with Dan Kelly, Chris Ashton and Julian Montoya all scoring to ensure they completed the opening half with a 12-23 lead.
After a scoreless third quarter, Burns helped the visitors to increase their lead to 14 points after another three pointer before Bryan Byrne dived from close range for their third try that came in the 64th minute making it 17-26. Bristol were given a huge opportunity as Francois van Wyk was red-carded for a dangerous tackle on Genge as the game entered the final 15 minutes with a difference of seven points between the two sides.
Even though Leicester did well despite being down on the numerical advantage, Gabriel Ibitoye with the aid of Genge, who pounced on a loose ball helped Bristol narrow down the gap to two points. MacGinty landed the conversion but missed a match-winning three-pointer in the closing stage as the game ended with a 26-26 draw.
Team line up:
Bristol Bears: Piutau; Bailey, Radradra, O'Conor, Ibitoye;, Sheedy, Porter; Genge, Byrne, Lahiff, Batley, Vui, Luatua, Lewis, Heenan.
Reserves: Thacker, Woolmore, Tyack, Hawkins, Thomas, Uren, MacGinty, Jenkins.
Leicester Tigers: Steward; Ashton, Porter, Kelly, Watson; Burns, Youngs; Whitcombe, Montoya, Cole, Wells, Chessum, Liebenberg, Reffell, Wiese.
Reserves: Clare, Van Wyk, Heyes, Snyman, Martin, Van Poortvliet, Atkinson, Potter.
