Saracens keep play-off bid on track with win at Bristol

Saracens survived two late yellow cards to keep alive their hopes of an end of season Gallagher Prem play-off spot after a 41-26 win at Bristol.

Their bonus-point win saw them reduce the gap to both Exeter and Bristol who both remain just ahead of the London club.

Bristol were the their own worst enemies in the first half conceding 34 points from slipshod tackling and the deficit proved too great to overcome.

Saracens’ tries came from Tom Willis, Hugh Tizard, Rotimi Segun, Ben Earl, Tobias Elliott and Fergus Burke, who added a penalty and three conversions. Owen Farrell kicked a conversion.

Fitz Harding, Harry Thacker, Matias Moroni and Kalaveti Ravouvou scored Bristol’s tries with Tom Jordan converting three.

It took less than three minutes for Bristol to take the lead when captain Harding dived over after two strong bursts from Benhard Janse van Rensburg had put the defence on the back foot.

Jordan converted from in front of the posts before Saracens responded with a simple penalty from Burke before Willis illustrated his power by forcing his way over from close-range.

Two minutes later Saracens stunned their opponents by adding another. A well-timed pass from Maro Itoje sent fellow lock Tizard through a huge gap and after a few phases, the ball was recycled for an on-hand Tizard to complete the move.

The fourth try of the half soon arrived when Bristol turned down a kickable penalty in favour of more attacking options and it paid dividends when Thacker burst away from a driving maul to touchdown.

That score was almost immediately nullified when Burke strolled through a sleeping defence to provide Segun with an easy run-in.

Bristol’s defence was all at sea at it came as no surprise when Olly Hartley easily beat two defenders for two former Bears’ Max Malins and Earl to combine to pick up their bonus-point after only 29 minutes.

The home side badly needed a boost and they got one with a try from Moroni but a superb off-load from Jamie George created a try for Burke for Saracens to lead 34-21 at the interval.

Bristol missed 26 tackles in the first half and they soon suffered a further blow when Gabriel Ibitoye limped off three minutes after the restart.

After the try-fest of the first half, the frenetic action relented and remarkably the third quarter finished scoreless.

After 62 minutes, Saracens’ replacement,Theo McFarland was sin-binned for collapsing a maul but Bristol lacked the invention to break down stubborn opponents.

However on McFarland’s return an excellent cross-field kick from Van Rensburg was collected by Ravouvou for Bristol’s bonus-point with Itoje sin-binned for an earlier collapsed maul.

A thrilling finish looked on the cards but a try from Ravouvou was ruled out for an earlier knock-on before the Fijian was yellow carded for a high tackle on Noah Calouri for Saracens to seal victory when Elliott intercepted a telegraphed pass.