Gloucester 53 Bristol Bears 28
With this nine-try hammering of their West Country rivals Gloucester moved up to third in the table and made a little bit of history in the process. Their winger Christian Wade scored his seventh Gallagher Premiership hat-trick to claim the all-time record, while the Cherry and Whites also completed a league double over Bristol for the first time since 2016-17. They were, as they have been so often this season, highly entertaining to watch.
Seb Atkinson, the 22-year-old centre, added a hat-trick of his own and was quite rightly awarded player of the match after terrorising Bristol throughout his 74 minutes on the field. The power Atkinson brought with his carrying might well be enough to catch Steve Borthwick’s eye ahead of England’s summer tour.
Given the 44-41 result after these two sides met at the end of September, along with their combined 20 try bonus points in the league this season, you always felt this could become a bit of a shootout.
What had not been on the cards was the way Gloucester raced into such a commanding lead, ahead 24-0 after the first 20 minutes as Bristol looked scrappy and off the pace, unable to stop Gloucester’s attacks from set-pieces. Santi Carreras, the incredibly talented Argentina international, was in full flow. His brilliant offload inside to Josh Hathaway set a high bar for the best bit of skill in the match.
Harry Byrne, Bristol’s No 10, on the other hand will not want to watch back his tackle attempt on Atkinson. Even accounting for the size mismatch, Byrne was folded up as Atkinson set up Chris Harris for Gloucester’s third score.
This game promised tries and it has fully delivered ☑️
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) March 29, 2025
Santi Carreras bags his third assist as Christian Wade finishes acrobatically in the corner 🔥#GallagherPrem | #GlovBRIpic.twitter.com/uir5hdyc0W
Still, you always expected Bristol would eventually sort themselves out given how well their season has gone, and so it proved. Harry Randall’s razor-sharp snipe created a score for the captain Fitz Harding, before centre James Williams finished off a burst from Rich Lane, and suddenly Bristol had half a chance down 24-14.
Except they still could not defend Gloucester’s strike moves. Charlie Atkinson this time turned creator, timing his pass as late as possible to Hathaway roaming off his wing, with Seb Atkinson on hand to add his second try.
Max Lahiff’s score, after a rare Carreras error set Bristol up in Gloucester’s territory, cut the gap but only briefly, with Wade diving over to finish well right on the cusp of half-time as Gloucester led 34-21.
If you like elite defence this was not a game for you, but the Premiership this season keeps serving up bags of sugar-filled tries and this was no different. The main question, even with a 13-point lead at the break, was whether Gloucester could hold their nerve when the waves of Bristol pressure eventually came.
No need to worry – one way to keep Bristol at bay was to keep piling on the tries. The Bears’ ...
