32 - 24

Red card can't hold Bristol back as Prem record smashed in 90pt thriller with Exeter

2 days ago

Dafydd Jenkins of Exeter Chiefs walks off after the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match between Bristol Bears and Exeter Chiefs at Ashton Gate on March 22, 2025 in Bristol, England. (Photo by Alex Davidson/Getty Images)

Bristol kept up the pressure on Gallagher Premiership leaders Bath with a 52-38 win over strugglers Exeter in a thrilling West Country derby.

The match saw 14 tries in total while 64 points were on the board before the interval, making it the highest scoring first half in Premiership history.

The hosts managed six tries to Exeter’s four in that 10-try period, with Bristol back rower Santiago Grondona also picking up a 30th-minute red card.

Wales are in desperate need of talent | RPTV

Video Player is loading.

Current Time 0:00

Duration 0:49

Loaded: 0%

Stream Type LIVE

Remaining Time 0:49

Wales are in desperate need of talent | RPTV

Boks Office discuss how Wales are going to find their way back after a disastrous Six Nations. Watch the full episode on RugbyPass TV now

Watch now

It took the Bears only 90 seconds to open the scoring when winger Jack Bates capitalised on Exeter making a mess of gathering the kick-off.

The Chiefs struck back almost immediately with a try by Martin Moloney off a line-out move, before centres James Williams and Henry Slade traded further tries to leave the scoreline 12-12 after nine minutes, with some people still taking their seats.

Fixture

Gallagher Premiership

Bristol

52 - 38

Full-time

Exeter Chiefs

All Stats and Data

Bristol began to take a grip on the game as centre Benhard Janse van Rensburg – straight from the kick-off – and Williams added touchdowns to bring up the Bears’ bonus point inside the first 16 minutes.

Exeter, though, responded in style, with skipper Dafydd Jenkins crossing, moments after England back Slade had been poleaxed by a thunderous tackle from Fijian number eight Viliame Mata, which was ultimately deemed a legal tackle even though Slade went on to fail a head injury assessment.

However, Grondona was not so fortunate after a head-on-head tackle on Moloney, moments after Bates had scored his second try of the game and Bristol’s fifth, following a break from halfway after a line-out.

Grondona’s misdemeanour came in the build-up to a bonus-point try for the Chiefs from winger Josh Hodge after a lovely piece of work down the left-hand touchline.

Thirteen minutes then elapsed before Bristol rounded off the half with a sixth try through England scrum-half Harry Randall, with fly-half Harry Byrne slotting his fifth conversion of the contest to leave the Bears 40-24 ahead at the break.

It took Bristol only seven minutes of the second half to get the scoreboard rolling again, with replacement Steven Luatua forcing his way over from close range.

Bates then completed an impressive hat-trick with another run-in down the touchline to take the hosts past the half-century mark.

Club captain Jack Yeandle was a popular scorer of Chiefs’ fifth try as both sides started to tire, while centre Will Rigg managed a late consolation as the visitors chased an unlikely second bonus point.

News, stats, live rugby and more! Download the new RugbyPass app on the App Store (iOS) and Google Play (Android) now!

Boks Office | Episode 37 | Six Nations Round 4 Review

Cape Town | Leg 2 | Day 2 | HSBC Challenger Series 2025 | Full Day Replay

Gloucester-Hartpury vs Bristol Bears | PWR 2024/25 | Full Match Replay

Boks Office | Episode 36 | Six Nations Round 3 Review

Why did Scotland's Finn Russell take the crucial kick from the wrong place? | Whistle Watch

England A vs Ireland A | Full Match Replay

Kubota Spears vs Shizuoka BlueRevs | JRLO 2024/2025 | Full Match Replay

Watch now: Lomu - The Lost Tapes

Comments

0 Comments

Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Latest Features

LONG READ

2025 Lions' selection: An idiot's guide

Andy Farrell's coaching team will be announced this week and every fan is compiling their perfect squads, Lions fever is upon us

LONG READ

Scotland's senior players 'have gone to a different level' in quest for top-three finish

Scotland have not finished in the top half of the Women's Six Nations for 20 years but coach Fraser Brown believes it is a realistic target.

LONG READ

How to solve a problem like Welsh rugby

Fighting fires at every level, Welsh rugby is in a rut and there doesn't seem to be any easy escape routes

Comments on RugbyPass

Poorfour 39 minutes ago

Antoine Dupont undergoes surgery on injured knee ahead of long absence

So “it wasn’t foul play because it wasn’t foul play” is - to you - not only an acceptable answer but the only possible answer?

I would hope that the definition of foul play is clear enough that they can say “that wasn’t foul play - even though it resulted in a serious injury - because although player A did not wrap with the right arm, he entered the ruck through the gate and from a legal angle at a legal height, and was supporting his own weight until player B entered the ruck behind him and pushed him onto player C’s leg” or “that wasn’t foul play although players D and E picked player F out of a ruck, tipped him upside down and dropped him on his shoulder because reasons.”

Referees sometimes offer a clear explanation, especially when in discussion with the TMO, but they don’t always, especially for incidents that aren’t reviewed on field. It’s also a recognised flaw in the bunker system that there isn’t an explanation of the card decisions - I’d personally prefer the bunker to prepare a short package of the best angles and play back to the ref their reasoning, with the ref having the final say, like an enhanced TMO. It would cost a few more seconds, but would help the crowd to understand.

Greater clarity carries with it risks - not least that if the subsequent feedback is at odds with the ref’s decision they run the risk of harassment on social media - but rugby is really struggling to show that it can manage these decisions consistently, and offering a clear explanation after the fact would help to ensure better consistency in officiating in future.

9 Go to comments

SH 1 hour ago

How to solve a problem like Welsh rugby

I don’t even think the U20s are much of a crumb of comfort to be honest - they only really did what Welsh teams have done to plenty of highly fancied English teams before them and ambushed them in Cardiff with lots of PASHUN LADS etc. If you’d ask me which of the two teams will make a dent at the forthcoming JWC, it won’t be Wales. It also doesn’t seem to matter how talented Wales are at age grade, the players stagnate once they reach the regions, hence why Gatland was often keen on fast tracking youth.

11 Go to comments

YeowNotEven 2 hours ago

'There's a lot of rugby knowledge': David Havili's reasoning behind in-form backline

Man I would love Cullen Grace to kick on. When he first got picked I thought he was going to own a shirt and do what Wallace did.

Takes some players a bit longer to develop.

31 Go to comments

GP 2 hours ago

Former New Zealand flanker and coach Alex ‘Grizz’ Wyllie dies

Agree with you. Certain people you think they will be here forever . Also about the age comment. Correct. Like you would do you often think back to past events and realize that so much time has gone by. It will be 40 years in September since the Canterbury-Auckland “Match of the Century”.Incredible.Two of the main stays of that Canterbury team , Jock Hobbs , (2012) and his Brother in Law Bruce Deans , ( 2019), have passed away. Bruce Deans played every minute of the 27 games , including the winning match Wellington , (1982) and the losing Auckland , (1985) games. John Drake and Andy Haden who were both in the Auckland team have passed and Peter Fatialofa , who I think was on the bench.

3 Go to comments

YeowNotEven 2 hours ago

'There's a lot of rugby knowledge': David Havili's reasoning behind in-form backline

By the end of last season neither Telea or Reece were at their best.

At that point, when players look a yard behind the pace I reckon razor should give someone young and hungry and keen a crack at it.

31 Go to comments

Head high tackle 2 hours ago

Sky Sports commentator on why Wallabies players are outplaying All Blacks counterparts

I think the draw needs to be sorted out. Its horribably unfair. Either make it 10 rounds or 20 rounds.

16 Go to comments

Head high tackle 2 hours ago

Sky Sports commentator on why Wallabies players are outplaying All Blacks counterparts

Tupaea and Tavitavinawi against any other 12s. If she believes Canham is outperforming Barrett thats cool but what were the stats from the game they played each other? it was a 30 point thrashing from memory

16 Go to comments

Head high tackle 2 hours ago

Sky Sports commentator on why Wallabies players are outplaying All Blacks counterparts

But surely a players stats are better when they play weak opposition? Were Canhams stats better than Barrets when they played against each other caz from memory the Crusaders thrashed the Reds.

What is desperately needed is a fair and equal draw. The skewed draw skews all stats.

16 Go to comments

Head high tackle 2 hours ago

Kyren Taumoefolau All Blacks stance splits opinions on eligibility

A draft is unenforsible. Its a restraint of practice. NRL draft lasted a couple of years before a player from Manly didnt want to shift to where he was drafted to and that was across town. Forcing a player into a draft then making him shift to another country miles from his family wouldnt last the first draft. Imagine a young fella from a small town out of Dunedin being forced to move to Perth where he has no family whatsoever. I could see a court decision being asked for very quickly.

16 Go to comments

JH 2 hours ago

Kyren Taumoefolau All Blacks stance splits opinions on eligibility

MP are a NZ side through and through, NZ is even having to pay for it. It was only really set up to stop the constant whinging (when nothing was stopping a pi player playing for any side in Super Rugby) and as a front to whisper in the ears of NZ and Aussie born players of Pi heritage that they’ll never make the ABs or Wallabies, switch to Tonga and Samoa instead. It’s becoming the jump-ship/zero loyalty joke that international League is.

For some reason it’s ‘poaching’ when any other nations do it, but not when the ‘poor islands’ do it, and statistically, they’re right up there with Scotland and Japan in terms of poached players. Not one of these Kiwis and Aussies would go live in the Islands to satisfy any criteria, and I’d say most of them have hardly ever set foot in the islands, outside of a holiday.

They should make the rule that you either have to be born in a nation, or that you’ve spent two-thirds of your life there. That rule would be good for NZ. But then watch the usual sector complain how that unfairly penalizes their national side because they’d lose all their imports. Can’t win.

16 Go to comments

JH 3 hours ago

Kyren Taumoefolau All Blacks stance splits opinions on eligibility

So rules created to fill the Samoan and Tongan sides with Aussie and Kiwi born and developed players is what Taylah Johnson is saying. Well, those two ‘island’ sides are increasingly less so by the year, so mission accomplished there, and it ultimately doesn’t make them any more competitive.

Kyren Taumoefolau is a NZer. He’s come through all the NZR systems and he wants to play for the All Blacks, so what? The only people making an issue of this are the ones who are always keen to play the victim card. It’s okay for them to poach with rules that are openly designed for them to do so, but heaven forbid a Kiwi or Aussie wants to play for the nation of their birth. Good grief.

16 Go to comments

Rugby 101 - Ed Pye 3 hours ago

Kyren Taumoefolau All Blacks stance splits opinions on eligibility

Johnson’s point is that Aussie teams filled with Australians makes the wallabies strong, but the Aussies teams have had bit-time NZ players for ever and the Wallabies have been both good and bad, so the point has limited support. Mils didn't explain it very well but a drafted comp would even out the competition which would allow Australian teams to win more which I believe would do more for the wallabies than having Aussie players in Aussie teams.

16 Go to comments

lK 3 hours ago

Super Rugby U20: Crusaders beat Chiefs to win back to back titles

👍🏼

1 Go to comments

CO 4 hours ago

Kyren Taumoefolau All Blacks stance splits opinions on eligibility

Australian rugby has always been weak apart from the Eales era.

It's getting absolutely weakened having to share talent with the two other oval ball games of League and AFL. It gets kiwis over to fill out sides to plug holes.

The limitations with an equitable draft is NZ players aren't eligible to play for the Allblacks from offshore. However on both sides of the Tasman a draft system could be useful.

16 Go to comments

DC 4 hours ago

Ex-England star's hat-trick helps Force to Super win over Fijian Drua

To Nic Dolly and ex England “star” is pushing it a bit. Ex England player would be more accurate.

1 Go to comments

CO 4 hours ago

Kyren Taumoefolau All Blacks stance splits opinions on eligibility

He's a Kiwi, born and raised in NZ. I think he should need to go and permanently reside in Tonga and play their domestic comps with a five year stand down.

I don't see any benefit to NZ rugby with all these players representing the islands and other countries but actually living here and taking up spots in our professional NPC and super sides.

The Moana side seems to be being paid for by the NZ taxpayer, money that could be going into NZ rugby.

Rugby's hugely expensive to fund and NZ rugby needs to get back to number one to win back sponsors, it won't do so giving everyone else a lot of it's best players.

Fiji is a viable rugby nation with it's sides talent overwhelmingly coming from Fiji, Tonga and Samoa should have to do the same.

I fully understand this idea that NZ should support the islands but I'm not seeing the benefits for NZ just more player drain.

The real problem though is the top NZ talent being poached by England, Wales, France, Japan, Scotland, Ireland. That's genuinely disgraceful.

16 Go to comments

olivia matt7777 4 hours ago

Spain's Leonas hold strong to beat fired-up Yaras

Jasmine Lopez is an expert in retrieving stolen cryptocurrency, including Ethereum and USDT. Her effective methods make her a reliable ally for theft victims. One client, who lost £908,000, sought her assistance, and Jasmine managed to recover the full amount within a day, bringing immense relief to the client. Jasmine is dedicated to helping others in similar situations and is available to offer support. For help with recovering lost funds, you can contact her via email at Recoveryfundprovider@gmail. com or on WhatsApp at +44 736 644 5035.

0 Go to comments

JW 4 hours ago

Kyren Taumoefolau All Blacks stance splits opinions on eligibility

Of course he can represent New Zealand. He can play for any other team other than the All Blacks - like Fabian Holland did last year with the New Zealand XV - this year, and represent the ABs next year. That’s an entirely normal and expected position for any new talent to be in, regardless of having played for another country before.