Match Report: Bristol Bears 22-31 Loughborough Lightning

Loughborough Lightning claimed a first victory in over three years over Bristol Bears to take five points home from their final away match of the 2024/25 Premiership Women’s Rugby season.

Krissy Scurfield and Kathryn Treder’s tries in the first period were cancelled out by Keira Bevan and Millie David touching down for the hosts at a sold-out Shaftesbury Park.

Lightning moved clear in the second half as Scurfield doubled her try tally for the day and was followed over the line by Elis Martin and Alev Kelter. Lark Atkin-Davies and Reneeqa Bonner landed late tries for the Bears, but there was no denying Nathan Smith’s side maximum points in their penultimate game of the campaign.

FIRST HALF

Bristol dominated possession and territory in the opening 15 minutes but didn’t make it show on the scoreboard. Lightning showed huge resilience on the back foot with Carmela Morrall burgling possession and Helena Rowland produced a trysaving tackle on Sarah Bern following one lung-bursting break down centre field from the Red Roses prop. 

So, it came against the run of play when it was Lightning who landed the first points of the game in the 26th minute.

Fresh from scoring 21 points on the occasion of her 50th appearance against Leicester Tigers last time out, Rowland prodded a perfectly-weighted grubber behind enemy lines where Scurfield raced on to collect and ground, with the score’s architect adding the tricky conversion to move ahead of Emily Scarratt as the club’s all-time leading point scorer.

Nine minutes before the break, Lightning stretched their lead to a dozen points on the scoreboard when Daisy Hibbert-Jones pulled in a lineout throw and landed for her fellow forwards to swarm and forcefully guide Treder over the line.

But the sides went in at the interval with honours even as home scrum-half Bevan latched onto a Hannah Botterman carry and offload to finish before David crossed in the left corner.

SECOND HALF

Four minutes into the second period, Lightning regained the lead. After some bulldozing runs from Hibbert-Jones and Courtney Holtkamp, the backs clicked into gear as Morrall made a half-break and offloaded to Scarratt who unselfishly fed Scurfield to land her 14th try in 12 Lightning games.

Mixed in with the tries were huge moments of defensive resilience, not least Scurfield herself who hauled down Bern and managed to pounce for a penalty at the breakdown.

In the 66th minute, Lightning secured a bonus point as another monumental maul was finished by replacement hooker Martin for her first try for the club.

The victory was all-but secured with ten minutes remaining when Martin lobbed a huge ball over the back of a lineout where Kelter arrived at pace to claim and swerve her way over into the right corner.

A 19-point advantage was cut by as Atkin-Davies – a try scorer for Lightning in their last win over Bristol – came back to haunt her former club when she drove over from a rolling maul then Bonner sprinted home Bristol’s bonus-point sealing fourth try from inside her own half.

Bevan converted one of the two efforts and then pushed a stoppage-time penalty wide that saw the hosts miss out on a losing bonus point from the contest. 

The victory, Lightning’s first in Bristol territory since October 2020, was the side’s fourth in six games as they now take a two-weekend break in action before returning to cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens on Friday 21 February (kick-off: 7.45pm) for their final match of the season – tickets are available priced from £7.50*/£3* by clicking HERE.

LINE-UPS:

Bears: 15 Joyce-Butchers, 14  Bonner, 13 Maher, 12 Murray, 11 David, 10 Aitchison, 9 Bevan; 1 Botterman, 2 Atkin-Davies,  3 Bern, 4 Cunningham, 5 Ward (c), 6 Balogun, 7 Joyce-Butchers, 8 Gallagher. 
Replacements: 16 Phillips, 17 Pam, 18 Clarke, 19 Burns, 20 Nigrelli, 21 Lewis, 22 Lovibond, 23 Keight.

Lightning: 15 Goldthorp, 14 Mataitoga, 13 Scarratt, 12 Morrall, 11 Scurfield, 10 Rowland, 9 Davey; 1 Young, 2 Treder, 3 Keates, 4 Holtkamp, 5 Ives Campion, 6 Malcolm (cc), 7 Kabeya, 8 Hibbert-Jones (cc).
Replacements: 16 Martin, 17 Williams, 18 Belisle, 19 Duguid, 20 Taufoou, 21 Waudby, 22 Brebner-Holden, 23 Kelter.