Ibitoye grabs 3 quickfire tries as Bristol fight back to stun Exeter

Gabi Ibitoye scored an eight-minute try hat-trick as Bristol produced a stunning fightback to maintain their proud unbeaten Premiership away record stretching back to last November following a 40-35 win at Exeter.

They looked dead and buried as Chiefs wingers Mani Feyi-Waboso and Paul Brown-Bampoe scored two tries apiece to put second-from-bottom Exeter 32-12 up with 18 minutes remaining and on the verge of their first win of the season.

But a hugely costly yellow card for replacement hooker Dan Frost four minutes later, for stopping a tap penalty being taken quickly, saw Bristol score 28 points while he was off the pitch, running in four converted tries, with Ibitoye getting three of them.

The first-half story was about taking your chances, with the clinical Bears making two entries into Exeter’s 22 and coming away with touchdowns each time, whereas the Chiefs squandered several opportunities.

Josh Hodge kicked Exeter into an early lead but Bristol got the first try of the game against the run of play when a blindside attack saw lock Joe Batley put Irish scrum-half Kieran Marmion racing away for a try.

Former Chiefs lock Josh Caulfield was sin-binned four minutes later for a professional foul after a fine break by Olly Woodburn and Exeter did not take long to capitalise on their one-man advantage.

A solid five-metre scrum on the right saw the ball moved swiftly to the left and a fine miss-pass by centre Joe Hawkins put winger Brown-Bampoe in for his first Premiership try.

England winger Feyi-Waboso came close to getting another soon after but knocked on Harvey Skinner’s cross-field kick after an aerial contest but instead it was the Bears who scored again from their second incursion into Exeter’s 22.

They pounded away on the left and created an overlap on the right where Benhard Janse van Rensburg put lock Batley over in the corner, with AJ MacGinty adding a superb touchline conversion.

With a minute to go to the break, though, the lead changed hands yet again, when Feyi-Waboso picked up the ball at a ruck with very little on and raced away in typical fashion to score beneath the posts, with Hodge’s simple conversion giving the Chiefs a 15-12 interval lead.

Hodge stretched the lead to six points and a blindside attack soon after saw Brown-Bampoe provide another excellent finish, with Hodge adding the extras for a 25-12 advantage.

Feyi-Waboso then grabbed his second from a 45-metre interception and with Hodge again converting, Chiefs were almost out of sight at 32-12.

But Frost crazily got himself sin-binned and the Bears capitalised in typical fashion, with two tries in two minutes from Gabriel Oghre and Ibitoye, with the latter then adding another swiftly after and MacGinty converting all three for a 33-32 scoreline.

Hodge looked like he might have saved Chiefs’ blushes with a 75th-minute penalty but more poor defensive work from Exeter saw Ibitoye race clear for his hat-trick score to send Bristol to the top of the table.