Bashed-up Piutau doesn't 'look great' after huge collision with May
Bristol Bears fear a potential long-term injury to star fullback Charles Piutau.
The Bears fell to a 31-18 defeat to the Leicester Tigers at Welford Road and are now face an anxious wait over the fitness of their star performer.
Piutau limped off with a late injury after a huge collision with Leicester wing Jonny May, and could now no face a lengthy layoff and even surgery on his knee.
Things go from bad to worse for Bristol Bears as Charles Piutau limps off pic.twitter.com/Tg1uP4bUVI
— John Evely (@JohnEvely_BPost) January 4, 2020
Leicester led 21-6 at the break before Bristol got back into the contest through tries from Piers O’Conor and Dan Thomas, only for May to score his second and wrap up the points five minutes from time.
For the Bears, their hot start to the Premiership season – which saw them sit second for much of the autumn – has cooled and they are now just seven points above Leicester in the table.
According to reports, Piutau has damaged his MCL and broken his nose.
Pat Lam tells me John Afoa has injured his ribs and “ could be weeks” and Charles Piutau has done his MCL and broken his nose after the tackle from Jonny May in the final few seconds.
— Damian Derrick (@DamianDerrick) January 4, 2020
“It is not looking great,” Lam told the Bristol Post.
“That makes it doubly worse today because we were into the last minute of play.
“It is his knee and he has broken his nose. It doesn’t look good for a few weeks now.”
Jordan Lay and Alapati Leiua were sin-binned in the first half leaving head coach Pat Lam frustrated.
“We worked our way back to 7-6 and then at half-time I showed the boys the clips – we were shocked and unrecognisable in what we were doing,” he said.
Harlequins' Michele Campagnaro cut a sorry figure when helped off the pitch last weekend and it will be quite a while before he is seen on one againhttps://t.co/8zDDu9p282
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) January 4, 2020
“At half-time I said it was a great challenge, we’ve been here before. We got it back to 21-18 and there were a couple of moments where we just didn’t score.
“The sin bins were silly, they were unnecessary. At the end of the day we had enough chances to get ourselves back into the game that could’ve easily blown up if it wasn’t for some silly stuff from us.”
Geordan Murphy insists Leicester Tigers can build on their win against Bristol and start to climb the Premiership table.
The Tigers endured a torrid start to the season, winning just one of their first seven games, but two tries from England winger Jonny May and one each for his international team-mates Ellis Genge and George Ford proved too much for the Bears.
Gustard is not happy. https://t.co/xnmChJdMnK
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) January 4, 2020
The Tigers stay 11th, above only Saracens who were hit with a 35-point deduction, but Murphy is optimistic they can put a string of results together.
“I thought we played really well,” he said. “Something we’ve been wanting to do is try and improve and get better, build on our performances and I feel we did that pretty well for 70 minutes today.
“In the first 10 minutes of the second half we were off but we can improve and will get better off the back of that.
“I thought all the guys stood up and played well today.
“At the start of the second half I thought Bristol did a really good job of holding onto the ball, we had opportunities to turnover the ball but allowed Bristol to hold onto it.
“From the kick-off it was just a lack of concentration, it showed that we needed to be switched on for every second. After that we could’ve folded but the boys got back on task, got down the right end, held onto the ball and won a penalty.
“That settled our nerves and allowed us to get one more try, which was very pleasing.”
Press Association/additional reporting RugbyPass
Comments on RugbyPass
Why cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to comments