Bristol hold off Leicester to win Premiership opener

Winger Gabriel Ibitoye scored two tries for Bristol and set up a third

Bristol (22) 25
Tries: Ibitoye 2, Thacker Cons: MacGinty 2 Pens: Williams 2
Leicester (0) 14
Tries: Kelly, Liebenberg Cons: Atkinson, Shillcock

Two tries from Gabriel Ibitoye helped Bristol open the new Premiership season with victory over Leicester.

Ibitoye doubled his tally with a stunning run from halfway, and two James Williams penalties saw Bristol open an unopposed 25-point gap.

Dan Kelly and Henro Liebenberg pulled two tries back but could not stop new Tigers head coach Dan McKellar's Premiership tenure beginning in defeat.

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Last season's semi-finalists Leicester were missing eight players still at the World Cup, to Bristol's four, and with two new signings and two league debutants in their midst, their play was littered with errors as Bristol largely dominated across the pitch.

The Bears raced out of the blocks and put immediate pressure on Leicester's scrum-half Joe Powell inside 60 seconds, forcing him to send his kick to touch and win territory just outside the Tigers' half.

As the hosts passed the ball out wide, full-back Rich Lane spotted a gap, kicked to the corner and Ibitoye touched down before the ball ran dead.

Charlie Atkinson missed a penalty for Leicester and it was as close as they got to putting points on the board during the first half.

Their first sustained period in attack came after 20 minutes, but Leicester could only move the ball sideways before a missplaced pass lost them possession. Ibitoye scooped it up and launched the ball downfield, to win Bristol a line-out five metres out.

The subsequent Bears maul powered forward and Thacker scored their second try.

Leicester missed the ball from the restart and were instantly back under the cosh. Fitz Harding released Ibitoye who ran circles around two defenders and, despite a tackle before the line, managed to stretch over to score.

Williams scored a penalty to end the half and added another at the start of the second, as Bristol cruised to a 25-point lead.

Yet under little pressure, an unsuspecting kick from Tom Whiteley bounced awkwardly and, with Kelly quicker to react, he ran over unopposed under the posts to finally get Leicester going.

Repeatedly Tigers got within touching distance of the Bristol tryline, only to be turned over as Bristol brought on Steven Luatua - fresh from the World Cup with Samoa - and new signing Virimi Vakatawa, who has only recently resumed playing after a heart condition.

With eight minutes left Tigers captain Liebenberg found a gap in the Bristol defensive line to charge over, but it was too little too late to mount any comeback.

Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam told BBC Radio Bristol:

"I'm proud of the boys, really good start, we've been working all pre-season on lots of parts of our game, the fundamentals, everything was geared to this.

"For the boys to play like they did, particularly the first half, was exceptional. Second half it's like we sat back on that lead and we stopped playing, so there's really good things we can take away.

"[Gabriel Ibitoye's] all-round game is just getting better and better."

Leicester head coach Dan McKellar told BBC Radio Leicester:

"We were well beaten that first 40 minutes. You've got to give credit to Bristol, they played well.

"We were a little bit slow out of the blocks, a little bit flat for whatever reason that might be, so we'll review that thoroughly, review how we trained, how we prepared for the week and find a solution to it.

"At the end of the day we weren't good enough tonight.

"Unfortunately those days happen. It's unexpected on round one but we'll learn plenty out of tonight and we'll be much better for it next week."

Bristol: Lane, Heward, Janse van Rensburg, Williams, Ibitoye, MacGinty, Randall; Woolmore, Thacker, Tyack, Dun, Batley, Harding (c), D. Thomas, Bradbury.

Replacements: Capon, Turner, Kloska, Caulfield, Luatua, Marmion, Vakatawa, O'Conor.

Leicester: Brown, Bassett, Porter, Kelly, Hassell-Collins, Atkinson, Powell; Van Wyk, Clare, Heyes, Henderson, Wells, Liebenberg (c), Cracknell, Rogerson.

Replacements: Dolly, Whitcombe, Hurd, Williams, Hatherell, Whiteley, Shillcock, Cokanasiga.

Referee: Ian Tempest

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