Callum Sheedy drop goal seals 23-8 win for Bristol Bears against Wasps

Wasps succumbed to a second defeat in two games as Bristol Bears picked up a 23-8 win on the road to win their second game in a row.

It was hardly a classic at the Coventry Building Society Arena as Pat Lam’s Bristol ended the game as winners at Wasps to back up their 31-29 win over Bath on the opening weekend of Gallagher Premiership action a week ago.

A game of fine margins, the two teams went in at the break with five points separating them. Playing their first home game of the season six days after giving away a 21-point lead to Gloucester last Sunday, it was Wasps who opened the scoring.

Following a bright start, it was veteran hooker Tom Cruse who went over in the corner. Coming after Charlie Atkinson fielded a kick within his own 22m, the hosts caused Bristol issues thanks to the hard carrying of No. 8 Alfie Barbeary.

Drawing in opposition numbers, the ball was fired out wide to the front-row who was lurking out wide. From a difficult angle, Atkinson was unable to convert that attempt.

Just a matter of minutes later, Bears had reduced the deficit to two points after making their way to just a couple of meters out before a black and yellow shirt ventured offside.

Callum Sheedy knocked the kick over and would be needed by Pat Lam’s side once more before the half was out. It was the Wales internationals converted try that gave his team the lead in the opening period, all by virtue of a knock-on on halfway by Barbeary.

Harry Randall rifled the ball to his left, finding his fly-half, who in turn found Piers O’Conor running an angle that cut our two Wasps defenders.

Releasing the ball to early replacement Rich Lane on the wing, the former Bedford Blues man was felled by Sam Spink in the corner, Sheedy driving low from the next phase to dot down.

Very little else would happen in the first half. Each side would have moments of possession, but did little with it. It wasn’t until Wasps won a scrum penalty after the second-half was underway that Atkinson would kick the home side to within two points of Bears.

With momentum behind them, Wasps could have taken the lead. With advantage for a high tackle as black and yellow shirts bettered their way to the try line, a try was scored in the corner. From a forward pass.

Opting to kick for the posts, Atkinson would slice the kick wide. Spurred on by their slice of luck, Bristol slotted a penalty to extend their lead and scored a try through summer signing Magnus Bradbury under the posts from a lineout move to extend their lead further.

Sheedy would put a final nail in the coffin of Wasps after his side camped in their opposition’s 22m, slotting a drop goal with just three minutes left on the clock.

After the game, Lee Blackett was cut frustrated figure. He had seen his team start a game brightly for a second game in a row, but ultimately flounder as the game continued and finish on the losing side.

On a scale of one to 10, the coach ranked his frustration as a ‘10’. With a squad relatively well settles at his disposal, Blackett believes that there is a simple path to picking up a first win of this new season, his senior players seemingly frustrated by how these opening weekends have gone.

“I don’t think they’re unhappy [overall], I think they’re unhappy with their performance,” he said. “I think they train ridiculously hard, and like anyone, if you’re part of a team and you make an error, you feel like you’ve potentially let the team down at that moment.

“It’s better that way, than not showing a not-caring side. I think the boys will look at that, and they won’t be confidence-shot with it, they’ll see quick fixes and fixes that we should be able to make pretty sharp.

“I just think that we’ve worked so hard on our skillset that shows we’re nowhere near where we need to be yet, and we’ll keep working extremely hard. I would say it’s some easy fixes for us there.”

An error strewn performance, Wasps very much had the better of the possession in the West Midlands, but failed to take advantage of the all the ball-in-hand which they had. As a result they must prepare to take on Bath without having won a game.

Each side also left the CBS Arena with concerns about some of their key men. Each of Blackett and Pat Lam confirmed that England hopefuls Alfie Barbeary and Sam Jeffries suffered hamstring injuries. Each will be assessed in the coming days and have the extent of those injuries evaluated.

Each side sustained knocks, as Wasps’ Ali Crossdale left the game with a groin issue and Bristol’s Sam Lewis was seen walking in a moon boat after the final whistle.

With this win, Bears wrote their own bit of history. It had been 22 years since Bristol had picked up a Premiership win on the road to Wasps, their last win coming at Loftus Road all the way back in 2000.

Heading home to the West Country with two wins from their opening two games, Lam is pleased with hoW his charges have started the season as they now move on to hosting London Irish at Ashton Gate in seven days’ time.

“They haven’t been the free flowing games that we like,” Lam said. “I think the stats come up, they only made 80 and we made 220 tackles. That’s some serious character because you can see they have got some serious threats.

“Massive credit to the work Jordan Crane [defence coach] is doing. The biggest thing for us is connected defence, team defence rather than – I would say a lot of times I would say a lot of times last year we were flying out of the line; we were trying to solve it as individuals, but we have put a lot of work into staying connected and that’s worked well I think.”

TEAMS

Wasps: A. Crossdale; Z. Kibirige, S. Spink, B. Odendaal, J. Bassett; C. Atkinson, W. Porter; R. Hislop, T. Cruse, J. Ryan, J. Launchbury (c), K. McDonald, T. Willis, J. Willis, A. Barbeary

Replacements: D. Frost, T. West, B. Alo, T. Cardall, N. Carr, D. Robson, R. Mills, W. Haydon-Wood

Bristol Bears: C. Piutau; L. Morahan, P. O’Conor, S. Bedlow, J. Bates; C. Sheedy, H. Randall; J. Woolmore, W. Capon, K. Sinckler, J. Joyce, C. Vui, S. Jeffries (c), M. Bradbury

Replacements: B. Byrne, Y. Thomas, M. Lahiff, E. Holmes, S. Lewis, A. Uren, A. MacGinty, R. Lane

Player of the Match: Sam Jeffries