Up Against It
Alemanno Off
By New Cherry
May 18 2021
Taking on the league leaders on their own pitchas they welcomed back supporters for the first time this season was hard enough. Doing it for an hour with just 14 men was mission impossible for the Cherry and Whites as we went down 39-7.
Astonishingly, Bristol Bears also had half a dozen or so "tries" chalked off.
We were 6-0 down when Mattias Alemmano got his marching orders after just 16 minutes a tip-tackle on opposing lock Steven Luatua.
Max Malins crossed for Bristol before half time with Santiago Carreras's reply making it 13-7 at the break.
Hopes that the 14 men could continue to keep the hordes at bay were dashed with Piutau and Earl scoring followed by Nathan Hughes, for the try bonus point, and Semi Radradra at the end.
George Skivington summed it up in the post match interview:
"This isn't the place you want to go down to 14 men, with the way they play but character was shown in abundance.
"We made Bristol work hard for their bonus point, and even though we were a man down we had a crack."