George Barton kicked a decisive penalty two minutes from
time as Gloucester edged Bristol in a Premiership thriller at Ashton Gate.
Christian Wade scored a hat-trick to help build an 18-point
lead for the Cherry and Whites with 17 minutes to play, with further tries from
Freddie Thomas and Gareth Anscome.
Bristol had scored through Gabriel Ibitoye, after just two
minutes, Siva Naulago and Harry Randall, then rallied from 41-23 down with two
quick tries from Max Malins.
When Rich Lane scored in the left corner, the game was,
remarkably, level but from the restart Bristol were penalised for going off
their feet at a ruck and Barton kicked the winning points.
It brought reward for some enterprising rugby from
Gloucester, who bounced back from an opening-round defeat to Saracens, and
Wade's first tries back in the Premiership after six years away.
He first took Max Lewellyn's offload, after a clever step
inside, to run in down the left wing, before, in the second half, intercepting
a pass and running 80 yards to score.
And when his kick down the right touchline bounced
outrageously away from two defenders, he gathered to stroll in for his
hat-trick and give Gloucester what looked like a winning lead.
Among his hat-trick was the try of the night from Thomas
who, from a move that began deep in Gloucester's half, picked a superb line to
break the defence near halfway and, three passes later, he was over.
But strange things can happen at Ashton Gate and with the
game almost out of reach, Bristol found their rhythm to twice work Malins over
from short range.
Wade then made contact with Bernard Janse van Rensburg's
head in a tackle and was sin-binned. Bristol took advantage from a scrum to
send Lane in down the wing Wade should have been defending.
All the momentum was with the home side but having claimed
the restart, overeagerness at the next ruck gave Barton his chance to win it.
It sent Bristol to defeat in their opening home game of the
season having won at Newcastle last weekend.
Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam told OceanNewsUK:
"We got off to a good start but then we weren't patient
enough and gave the ball up.
"Well done to Gloucester, they said they were going to
play and they cut us open a few times.
"Yes we fought back but we made life difficult for
ourselves."
Gloucester head coach George Skivington told OceanNewsUK:
"I'm really proud of the lads, they were brave tonight
and did everything we asked of them.
"They worked really hard in defence, Bristol are a
really, really good attacking team and we got caught out very early but we got
back on track.
"We've talked about being brave if we’re going to play
this way and if something goes wrong, we've got to park it, and we did that
time and again."
