Bristol Bears keep play-off hope alive with 40-3 win over Leicester Tigers

Bristol Bears 40-3 Leicester Tigers, Ashton Gate
Scorecard

Bristol Bears have kept their hope for play-off alive after trouncing Leicester Tigers 40-3 in the 21st round of the Gallagher Premiership at Ashton Gate.

They now have 64 points and are just two points behind second positioned Wasps and will face London Irish in the final round on 4th October while Leicester's dismal season continues as they are set to finish 11th in the table following their 14th defeat.

Pat Lam made 10 changes to his side from the win in the Challenge Cup semi-final while Leicester had a number of young talents on sight as they look to build towards the next season.

Bristol continued to apply pressure on Leicester early and they found the breakthrough in the 18th minute when Ioan Lloyd crossed over and Callum Sheedy kicked the conversion to make it 7-0.

Leicester bounced back with a penalty goal from Zack Henry in the 24th minute, Bristol went on to score the second try through Nathan Hughes in the 29th minute and Sheedy improved it to make it 14-3.

Leicester's problems compounded when Ben White was sin-binned in the 36th minute for a deliberate knock on and immediately Bryan Byrne crossed the whitewash as the teams went into the break with a 21-3 scoreline.

The home side were quick to get off the block in the second half with Dan Thomas touching down in the 45th minute and Sheedy followed with the conversion making it 28-3 and soon Semi Radradra was called from the bench.

As Leicester struggle to find any more breakthrough, Bristol continued to mount pressure with Harry Thacker darting over in the 62nd minute taking their lead to 33-3 before the final minute saw the visitors lose Harry Simmons to a yellow-card for a deliberate knock on which also resulted in a penalty try for Lam's side to complete a 37-point victory.