Reasons to be cheerful - one to seven

I’ll be the first to admit that I can be such a Pollyanna I even annoy myself. And whilst the result at Ashton Gate was less than optimal there are several reasons to join me in my Pollyanna-ness.

Reason number 1: the result and the performance was not as bad as earlier in the year, after the seven week lay-off for the Six Nations.

Reason number 2: we gave a good account of ourselves for a lot of the game despite being without our England internationals and other first choice players out through injury. It is surely not beyond the capability of those in charge of our game to ensure, with a slimmed down league, no premiership game should be taking place when the International players aren’t available. When the likes of Andy Good have sympathy for us you know we are not being unreasonable to have a quick moan about it.

Reason number 3: A new rising star at 10 – George Makepeace-Cubitt made his premiership debut in the bear’s pit and look self-assured and confident – almost as if he’d learned from an only slightly older role model. Looking forward to seeing more of him over the coming weeks. I was worried for the lad as in the past seasons both George Hendy and Archie McParland have had a torrid time down there and their confidence took time to recover but George seemed to ride it out and emerge with his head held high!

Reason number 4: A young side – we keep hearing from various sources about Exeter’s young side who need to be given time to develop – but our squad for the weekend was seriously young. Someone who is heading into serious Rugby nausery (not me) did the calculations for squads over the weekend – oldest to youngest: Leicester 28.4, Quins 27.6, Bristol 27.5, Bath 27, Sale 26.8, Falcons 26.4, G’cester 26.1, Exeter 26, Saracens 25.7, Saints 24.8. Included in that youthful squad were two 19 year olds – Henry Pollock and Archie McParland and two 20 year olds – George Makepeace-Cubitt and Craig Wright. Thanks for doing the sums Anna Litchfield!

Reason number 5: Tom Pearson and Henry Pollock – the energy from these two could power up the National Grid!

Reason number 6: Back from injury and good game time for skipper for the day Alex Coles, recalled to the England squad too. And George Hendy is back to full galloping nuisance – two tries in two games – great to see him again.

Reason number 7: we don’t have to go there again until next season!

As to the game itself we looked really impressive in the first half with tries from Hendy and Josh Kemeny and two penalties from George Makepeace-Cubitt. Curtis Langdon was unlucky to have his try chalked off when Craig Maxwell-Keys and the TMO decided the ball had been held up. Bristol scored two tries for a half-time score of 14-18.

Two more tries and a penalty gave Bears the bonus point win and despite Saint’s best efforts with a further try from a delicious break and pass from Rory Hutchinson to James Ramm it was not enough to claim a losing bonus point.

Onwards to the Premiership Cup opening game with an East Midlands Derby at The Gardens. Here’s hoping we see more of our young guns who can put one over on those pesky bouncy ones from up the road.

Thanks, as always, to Claire Jones of RedHat Photo for the pictures. More can be found here.

To see and hear Claire and Lis talking about Saintly things - and mysteriously baseball this week -  head to LadiesWotPod on Youtube or Spotify or your favourite Podcast platform. For Facebook debates take a look at SaintsSinners group.