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Bristol kicked off their Gallagher Premiership season with a low-profile 24-3 win away at a much-improved Newcastle side on Friday night.
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Away from the glamour tie at Recreation Ground, where Bath hosted Northampton in a repeat of last year’s Premiership final, under grey overcast skies in the north-east, Newcastle and Bristol engaged in a scrum-ridden arm wrestle which opened up in the second half.
Newcastle, after a full summer of pre-season toughening up under director of rugby Steve Diamond, were a much sterner test than the side that capitulated to a record 85-14 defeat at Ashton Gate five months ago but still fell to their 22nd league defeat on the bounce.
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A brace from Max Malins and tries from James Williams and Siva Naulago, with AJ MacGinty adding two conversions, delivered Bristol’s bonus point win at Kingston Park. Newcastle registered just three points from the boot of fly-half Brett Connon.
In contrast to the hosts – who handed debuts to summer signings Connor Doherty and Sammy Arnold in the centres and Tom Gordon at openside, with new prop Luan de Bruin coming off the bench and academy scrum-half Joe Davis making his debut from the replacements – Bristol boss Pat Lam named an entire matchday 23 who were at the club last season.
Bristol opened the scoring inside five minutes after lock James Dun was put through a gap in the midfield as the away side attacked off a lineout and the forward produced a sumptuous back-of-the-hand offload to centre Williams who had the pace to run in. Fly-half MacGinty missed a relatively routine shot at goal.
After the bright start, Newcastle pinned the Bears deep into their half for the majority of the next 35 minutes, but turned down multiple chances to go for goal in favour of kicking to the corner and were unable to convert their superior possession and territory into points.
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Ellis Genge ended one attack with a thunderous tackle on Callum Chick, dislodging the ball from the Falcons captain. With the final play of the first half, Newcastle won a scrum penalty which Connon converted to make it a two-point game at the break.
Bristol struck quickly again after the interval. Harry Randall sniped from the base of the ruck to get close to the try line and Jake Heenan kept the momentum of the move alive with a quick pass out to Benhard Janse van Rensburg. He smoothly whipped the ball to Naulago who finished the flowing move with a one-handed diving finish in the corner and MacGinty converted.
The Falcons’ resolve was running out and patient play from Bristol saw Malins take a pass at full speed to burst over the line and put the result beyond doubt.
The all-important bonus point was delivered by Malins, who took a clever cross-field kick from MacGinty over his shoulder to dot the ball down.
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