The history of the Bristol rugby side (now known as the Bristol Bears) dates right back to 1888, when the Carlton club merged with rival club Redland Park to create Bristol Rugby Club. The team soon became formidable in the league and, by the 1891-92 season, the Bristol rugby team won 20 out of a possible 24 games. Plus, when the first All Blacks side came to England in 1905, Bristol Rugby Club had the honour of facing them. However, they lost 41-0.
Read on to learn more about the Bristol Bears. On this page, you can view all of the upcoming Bristol Bears fixtures and see the latest news about the team.
Magnus Bradbury scored a last-gasp try as Bristol completed an amazing comeback with a 21-19 Gallagher Premiership victory at Leicester to take a big step towards qualifying for the play-offs.
The history of the Bristol rugby side (now known as the Bristol Bears) dates right back to 1888, when the Carlton club merged with rival club Redland Park to create Bristol Rugby Club. The team soon became formidable in the league and, by the 1891-92 season, the Bristol rugby team won 20 out of a possible 24 games. Plus, when the first All Blacks side came to England in 1905, Bristol Rugby Club had the honour of facing them. However, they lost 41-0.
Read on to learn more about the Bristol Bears. On this page, you can view all of the upcoming Bristol Bears fixtures and see the latest news about the team.
After a brief hiatus, four more seasons in the Premiership followed as Bristol Rugby Football Club, including a third-placed finish in 2006-07. However, the side was relegated once more in 2008-09. This time, there would be no immediate return to the Premiership and the Bristol rugby team played in the RFU Championship until 2016. During this seven-year period, they actually came top of the table on five occasions, but they lost in the play-off final three times and in the semi-finals once.
After a fourth relegation in 2016-17, the Bristol rugby team is now an established Premiership side. Plus, upon their return to the Premiership in 2018, the team even officially rebranded as the Bristol Bears.
The rebrand seems to have changed the fortunes of the traditional yo-yo team. After all, the Bristol Bears have been in the Premiership ever since and, in the 2019-20 season, the team even came third and made it to the semi-final of the play-offs. In the same season, the Bristol Bears even won the European Rugby Challenge Cup for the first time.