Bears Beyond The Gate
A Bristol Bears podcast made by fans for fans. Each week your hosts Pete, Lee and Miles will take a light-hearted look at developments from Ashton Gate and beyond.
Bears Beyond The Gate
Ep 179 - Stadium Surprises and Rugby Reflections
What happens when you mix a makeshift dining room studio with lively rugby banter?
You get a fun-filled episode of Bears Beyond the Gate!
Join us as our usual podcast space at the Bristol Beer Factory Taproom is commandeered by the BBC, forcing us into the homely pod studio.
Miles shares his up-close experience from the England versus Australia clash at Twickenham but despite England's loss, the electrifying atmosphere, seamless pint access, and scrumptious street food made it a day to remember.
We also review the previous night's exhibition match vs Australia A including a light-hearted mention of the Dame Edna look-a-like cam which stole the show and ponder which international touring team could actually fill the stadium next year.
Celebrating Bristol Bears' rising stars is a must, so we (very) briefly review the two Prem Cup game as well as the recent exploits of the Bears Women team, plus, we tease our listeners with plans for future episodes and our excitement for upcoming internationals.
So, grab a drink, sit back, and immerse yourself in the Bears Beyond the Gate experience!
You're listening to Bears Beyond the Gate, a Bristol Bears podcast made by fans for fans. With three season card holes at Ashton Gate, we love the club, the game and all things Bears. This week, in the absence of Premiership action, we aim to do a shortish roundup of other Bears related activity, including the match against Australia A, the Prem Cup activity and also what's been going on with the Bears women, and then finishing off with a couple of AOBs as we look into the depths of a two-week break from any club related activity. I'm Pete and I'm joined by.
Speaker 1:Lee and Myles for a cheeky beer and a bit of Sunday night banter. Well, boys, we're actually back in the pod studio tonight, aka my kind of dining roomy type area. Unfortunately, there is some washing on the radiator, but it is my other half's sort of quite a nice t-shirt and a hoodie. So, no, no pants this week, no sweaty gruds this week, um, and there's a few bits and pieces in this room. There's a telly behind us today.
Speaker 3:You meant to fix last that bit of kitchen you meant to fix last year. We've still got that. What's it called?
Speaker 4:again Kicker board. I think we're ruining the illusion, boys, come on, let's just imagine that the listeners can just have this vision of us having a nice little, professional little, and a knocked off 82 inch TV behind us. I mean, that is pretty horrible, that is.
Speaker 5:But we've all, obviously we've all got drop-down microphones.
Speaker 1:I've got this little mixing desk next to me just getting the and so on, but anyway we're here just because the Bristol Beer Factory taproom obviously our normal location they've got a screening, bbc screening. This does happen every now and again.
Speaker 5:Every year, doesn't it? Yeah, it was.
Speaker 3:Planet.
Speaker 1:Earth 2 or something last year, wasn't it? But anyway, not like a health screening. No no no, no, no, they're using the studio bar for something else, and obviously, that's pretty selfish, really, isn't it Well? I mean they had to think about it for a while BBC versus Bears Beyond the Gate, bbc versus BBTG, and I mean Lewis did email us and said it was a difficult decision.
Speaker 4:They had to have a board meeting about who were they going to give the lift to. Was it a flip of a coin?
Speaker 1:In the end it was a flip of a coin.
Speaker 4:Yeah and to be fair bless him.
Speaker 3:He gave us an extra pint on Friday night because he knew he wasn't going to see us this evening. He did.
Speaker 1:So a big shout out to Lewis again, even though we're not actually in the beer factory, but we did get our kind of beer in advance down at the kiosk on Friday night.
Speaker 5:But anyway, we're going to get on to that in a minute. Miles, we are, we are.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, we've got a few things to talk about, but we're going to kind of work backwards because, Miles, you've had a bit of a busy weekend and you've had kind of been to one and a half internationals, haven't you?
Speaker 3:Well, it's kidding, so tell us all about it. Well, absolutely so, let's work backwards, because obviously no games today.
Speaker 5:But yesterday.
Speaker 3:I had the privilege of going up and seeing the real deal England versus Australia up at Twickenham. My father-in-law's 80th, so myself and my three brother-in-laws and my father-in-law got the train up yesterday morning, cracked open a pint of Thatcher's by half past 10 on the train, as you would uh, and enjoyed what was it? Inevitably a disappointing result in the end, but loved it first time at tricking them. Really busy train, but yeah, great area, great food. Um experience like the the guinness bar, you know.
Speaker 3:But good thing I liked about it easy to get beer, not many queues.
Speaker 5:They are set up for serving 80,000 people and they do it well.
Speaker 3:You've been there.
Speaker 1:Pete, yeah, they do it very well and they do. What they also do very well is empty your wallet about 100 times over.
Speaker 3:Well, this is true. Yeah, yeah, yeah of a Guinness you could wince at but, you know, it's London, it's Twickenham, it's a captive audience, isn't there?
Speaker 4:I mean, the thing that I love about it is I mean, it is a nightmare on the trains miles you're right it's an absolute, just awful journey at times. But when you get off that train what I love is all the little food outlets and you know the little barbecues and stuff that go on outside people's. You know driveways and I love all that.
Speaker 3:It was great and the sort of knockoff merch, just brilliant and you're disappointed to see inevitably some half and half scarves, yeah, which you?
Speaker 5:know, you know our feelings. You can't avoid them. But you can't avoid them. But yeah, good experience.
Speaker 3:That's some great street food on the way and beer etc. And you know it's quite a spectacle, isn't it? Twicking them for the first time? Absolutely behemoth of a stadium, isn't it? Great seats in the corner. Got to see some decent couple of slight home tries. At the end they were down in our corner, thought we'd thought we'd got the win at the 78 minutes. Lo and behold, australia on the ball very, very good and you know, got that try at the end are we talking? Game management. Then what? Not closing out a game?
Speaker 4:Yes, Now can we tell the listeners.
Speaker 5:You go for it.
Speaker 4:So we've.
Speaker 1:Well, pete, actually do you want to say Okay, yeah, yeah. So, just in case you missed it, we have been sent this. It's an actual silver bell that was sent to us in the post by one of our listeners who goes under the moniker on instagram of southwest dog skills. He's actually called matt and he went to the the trouble to package up this bell and send us a really nice letter saying that he loves the pod and he really appreciates us doing it, as does his mates who listen to it. But he loves the fact that we do seem to get stuck in certain cliches from time to time, and obviously in the past few pods we've been doing our own little noises, our little dings, and he said I don't want you to take this personally, but I've done this to try and encourage you to try and widen your vocabulary just a little bit good, which I think is great, and obviously the only thing that's happened for me is that I've been playing with it like it's a, it's a boobie.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we're all good, matt, thanks very much so so I think you know, matt I did actually have a bit of banter with him on instagram, just uh, just the messaging, and I think he said you don't have to use it. I was like, mate, we are definitely going to use it, don't worry about that. We think it's a great idea. So, from now on, if anybody any three of us utters anything that we consider to be a cliche, then one of us can just go to the boobie and give it a little tweak, and we're all currently looking at each other now, who's going to do it next?
Speaker 1:it's a bit like that. Just A Minute on Radio 4.
Speaker 3:We're all worried now for the older generation. We're not in an episode of Are you being Served.
Speaker 4:I'd say so you enjoyed your day, mark. Yeah, apart from the result. Yeah, apart from the result yeah, you know, it's a good shout.
Speaker 3:Yeah loved it.
Speaker 1:First time. I mean I should say that we did have a little bit Bears related interest. We obviously had Harry Randall and Genji. So Genji started, yeah, he seems to establish himself, as the Premier Lou said. Now you, I don't know. It's quite hard to see this stuff live game back recording.
Speaker 1:I thought he played well. I think Genji did carry a bit better than he did against. We had more opportunity to carry. Unfortunately, he'll get tarred with the same brush as the disappointment. I think he didn't do anything that made me think that he's anything but our premier loose head.
Speaker 1:Whether he'll play against whether he'll start against South Africa. That might be down to whether Borthwick decides to blood, maybe Finn Baxter and see, but we'll see. So I think he was right. And then Harry, I mean I thought he got pelters last week for that pass to Ford and it wasn't a great pass, but I think he got a bit. It was a bit unfair on him and I mean it was one thing that you might have noticed, miles, and this was on telly and a lot of listeners might have seen. This is when Ford and Randall got up to get ready to come on there was a bit of a kind of intake of.
Speaker 1:There was a bit of a negative vibe in the stadium. There was a few boos and a few kind of Because obviously you put on the big screen. I thought that's harsh.
Speaker 4:That's really harsh, that's harsh, that's really harsh. Yeah, but that's not unusual as well for England.
Speaker 5:Yeah it is.
Speaker 1:And I think this is the problem with this sort of stuff. You know, stuff gets in the media. It gets whipped up Rightly so People. Then it gets whipped up by social media and you know. You only have to look through Twitter last week and you have 50 people saying Randall was a bit unlucky, 50 people saying he should be dropped. He should be dropped and it's wrong. But I thought he had a good game and the irony was that he came on and he nailed about five box kicks Absolutely perfect. Now we have our thoughts about box kicking, but given the fact he's probably been told he's got to do it and otherwise he's never going to play for England again, I thought, ironically, they were brilliant. Seeing as he hasn't done any box kicking for Bristol at all, I thought he played right. What I don't understand with someone like Randall is that he should be starting. He should be. We need to make a. You know he should start and then like coming on with Ford. It was just a weird thing again.
Speaker 4:Well, it just kind of like. I mean, I'm not a big fan of Borthwick, as we all know but it just kind of it felt like the whole box kicking thing. It it's like surely we're all moving on from that and it just feels like Balfour has gone, like regressed. We've got some great players, but it just feels like just that whole concept of box kicking again. It's taking us back into the dark ages.
Speaker 2:I don't like it.
Speaker 4:I don't like it even though Harry did well at it, I just don't think it's the way forward.
Speaker 1:I think the only thing, the worry with it, is that now they've got this rule about, you can't block the kick chase. It's going to encourage more of it, I think. But we'll see. Yeah, he was great.
Speaker 3:I mean, you know, I did experience a sort of burrowing, and on a lot of social media this week they seem to have pigeonholed the Randall and Ford axis as the reason why the backs just didn't work when they came on and, annoyingly, some cretins couldn't even spell Randall, randell. I mean, you know, get a grip, learn his name properly. I thought it was great, you're right we always get everybody's name we get well, we'll talk about that later maybe, but it was great.
Speaker 3:You're right, his box kicks were pinpoint on the money and if that's the way Borthwick has asked him to play, he did what he was asked to and it did nothing wrong. So to sort of say that. But you're right, I think the start of Spencer needs a change. We need a bit of a quicker number 10, number 9, to start with Randall. We talked about this when he's fit. Mitchell, maybe Van Portfleet, but I think it's time to so the Spencer's not worked.
Speaker 1:I don't think this is not an England rugby part. I wouldn't, I don't want to see Van Portfleet. I just think we, if we, if we want to have a quick, running, attacking game, you've got to have quick running halfbacks Marcus Smith, his box office he's brilliant but you know, it just seems. Ben Spencer is a great pro, and I've got nothing against him personally, but he just doesn't seem quite the right well he never has been scrum after go with.
Speaker 3:Smith no, I mean.
Speaker 1:Danny, kerr and Smith work really well together at. Quinns, and it's almost like you need someone in Danny Kerr's mould to take over. But anyway, that's for another chat. But you know, I thought they did alright and I hope that. I hope Harry. It'd be interesting to see whether he'll get a start against South. Africa. I just wonder whether Balfour's got to be seen to do something a bit different. He can't do the same thing again and see us lose again. It's the definition of madness. It is the definition of madness.
Speaker 3:You know it's not as if we've got an easy game next week isn't the definition of madness.
Speaker 1:You're trying to solve a problem with the same thinking that created it in the first place and expecting a different solution.
Speaker 4:So we'll see. But anyway, it was good that you asked your time great game.
Speaker 3:Segue into the your second international, our second international on Friday night and I was lucky enough to get some NHS discount off our tickets, so Pete and I sat in our pretty much our existing seats, but just the other side of the aisle in E32. So same view, didn't we? And experienced another great game on Friday night, I mean it was encouraging. Outside in the fan village it was lively, really busy, am I right? A crowd supposedly?
Speaker 3:of about 15,000. It felt a little bit less than that. There were a lot of empty spaces. Either side of the south stand and obviously the Atio.
Speaker 5:They don't feel the edges do they, but the Dolmen seemed pretty busy, didn't they?
Speaker 3:Pretty loud. But you know know, we didn't know what team Australia were going to bring and actually they were flipping physical very good very quick and you know we needed we had to defend the entire game.
Speaker 1:I mean it was a yeah. I mean you said it was a great game, miles and. I know what you mean. It was kind of. I think it was a much better game atmosphere than people expecting. Yeah, Having said that, they clearly gave away a load of tickets last minute just because there were two girls who came and sat next to us in the second half in some empty seats and said can we sit here?
Speaker 1:We said yeah, that's fine. And they said yeah, we bought tickets in the atelier, but my club coach gave me freebies this morning for the Dolmen and they had given quite a few out to clubs and schools and there was a few discounts and I think you know fair enough, but it was. I mean, if you'd be, if you were somebody who had paid £61 for a ticket and you find out you're sitting next to somebody who it's not a great in the future again is it?
Speaker 4:And this thing I mean from my point of view. I didn't attend the game because you? Know for me it wasn't ever going to be how it was initially portrayed. It was a bit, like you know, I kind of feel like I have to be the voice of people who don't turn up. But to quantify that, I think that it was always going to be like an Australia B b stroke c team.
Speaker 4:It was yeah and, um, you know, fair play to you boys. You went down, but for me it was never going to be that kind of you know, it wasn't ever going to you know kind of rock my boat to, just you know to coin a phrase, but you know, you had a good night. You had a good night.
Speaker 3:You had a good night anyway, didn't you?
Speaker 1:We did Well, yeah.
Speaker 3:We had a two pint settled in for the evening and enjoyed some you know, enjoyed some rugby. It was good rugby.
Speaker 2:Well yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean for those that didn't go and haven't looked at anything. It was a ten, all draw.
Speaker 4:Ten all draw.
Speaker 1:yeah, I mean that's quite unusual for the game, considering seven points of those were in the last minute Exactly, and I think of course, a lot of people would have gone down there expecting to see a try-fest, and I think there were probably a lot of new fans who'd gone down there who were probably slightly bemused. They were like what is this rugby?
Speaker 2:I thought we were supposed to get 40 points.
Speaker 1:But, so I guess there's a couple of positives that come from it. Number one it still maintains our home run.
Speaker 2:So we beat Saints, we beat Bedford in the Prem Cup the week before and we haven't lost.
Speaker 5:So we've now won three.
Speaker 1:And in many ways the game on Friday was very much the fortress game, because we were under the cosh for a lot of the time and actually the defence was pretty good, and thereosh for a lot of the time and actually the defence was pretty good and it was. They were quite a lot of young lads playing. So I think we probably got a lot more out of that game by having to defend a lot of it against these Aussie guys. Let's face it, I kind of realised as I was watching this these guys are decent players.
Speaker 2:They're picked out of their clubs to come on a tour.
Speaker 1:They're all desperate to try and get in. They've got a chance that they could get into the Australian squad. Probably not now, but they were going for it and they were good players. You know they were clinical. There was quite a lot of mistakes in the game. There were quite a lot of knock-ons and we couldn't quite get going, but they weren't 61 pounds worth of.
Speaker 3:Australian beef, and that's the thing I agree.
Speaker 1:And so that's my. You know that was. The positives was that I think we kept our unbeaten home little home run going. I think we. It was good there was a lot of game time for players.
Speaker 5:It still was quite hard.
Speaker 1:I mean, I did sense that there is always a sense with an exhibition game, knowing full well that they had another game the following weekend and obviously Batley, ibitoy and Ogre, potentially, were going to be playing them again for England. A Although I did read something about injuries, but we'll come back to that. You do sort of wonder if they really went for it. You know there was a because in the back of their minds.
Speaker 1:you know all of those players are probably trying to get a balance between we really want to do well but we don't want to get injured. But I think a lot of the other positives were little moments from the game Miles. One of the best moments was when they did the lookalike cam. You know how they do it in American football. They did it. We've seen that a few times, but who do you think?
Speaker 2:they chose, given the fact it was.
Speaker 1:Australia who did they find in the crowd? Who was like the lookalike? What was the kind of original that they were looking at right so? Because, it was Australia.
Speaker 4:I'm guessing it was going to be a Luke Morihan.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, no, no. I mean it's like a celebrity, A celebrity Australian. So they're looking like they put a celebrity up, not Dame Edna.
Speaker 4:Yes, no way, no way, rich no.
Speaker 3:Rich, I found a lady with coloured hair and glasses. It was brilliant, it was.
Speaker 1:It was like it came up it was like they must have spent nearly 65 minutes looking, scouring the stadium for someone who looked like Dame.
Speaker 3:Edna, I mean, I've never. Did we have Aussie cam? Did we have Wave cam?
Speaker 1:did? We have Aussie cam. We had Wave cam no, we didn't have. Wave cam. We had Simba cam, simba cam.
Speaker 3:Aussie cam.
Speaker 4:I'm so glad I said Dame Edna, by the way, because my next guess in my head was Royal Farage.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that would have gone very badly yeah, I mean, what made me laugh about the Dame Edna one was probably that discounted quite a lot of people in the stadium who would have no idea who that was, but me.
Speaker 5:Obviously, at a certain age I laugh my head off that almost made the night.
Speaker 1:The Dame the lookalike, he cam and they left it all lights. And then, yeah, they did a. They did a Simba cam us because they were quite a lot. It was a. It was a typical friday night game. There was quite a lot of students. But I look back and there was this guy like holding up his mate. But this guy had obviously had a few beers because he was like he was just holding, he was like his arms was like, and this guy's holding him up like that's in the car, and this guy's like I mean, you're, by that time I think we'd all kind of we were all looking for a bit, it was quite chilly as well, wasn't?
Speaker 1:it, miles, yeah, yeah, it's getting into winter now.
Speaker 3:But anyway, it's a good crap. But I guess what you're saying is you know, price-wise you roll it back 12 months and we had that exhibition, south Africa game, didn't we?
Speaker 3:Which I think in comparison in our own seats, I think cost us 40 quid there or thereabouts yeah. So to go 12 months down the line and charge 61 quid for the same seats? You didn't. You know, you didn't have to be genius to work out in a calendar that we were facing Australia and tricking them the next day. Yeah um. I feel like that's a bit of a rip-off, so I can understand why, about a week ago, there were 6,000 tickets still to be sold yeah, so maybe some some learnings. Here's a question for the club there.
Speaker 1:Here's a question before we finish on this one, if next year they're going to do this again, let's be honest, I think we've got the Reds, but that's included. But I mean this time next year, because this autumn international thing is definitely you're right. It's becoming so which team, which country do you think would sell out straight away?
Speaker 4:well, a Welsh team, no, welsh team from abroad. From abroad, I think there's one there's one.
Speaker 1:I mean, there's not many countries to choose from, so it's not a very difficult question. But who do you think would probably sell out if we said that we're going to play?
Speaker 3:a 15 of that country. I'm going to put it out there. Argentina no.
Speaker 1:Ooh, no, think about it.
Speaker 3:Sell out if you said you were going to play them.
Speaker 1:Because South Africa they came on reputation partly because we also knew a few. There were a few because it's such a strong rugby country.
Speaker 5:So if it's not South.
Speaker 1:Africa. What's the other one? Who do you think would sell out? I reckon Well, I could be wrong, but who?
Speaker 2:do you think they're going to try? I think after this year. What so we're?
Speaker 4:not doing New Zealand, then yeah.
Speaker 1:I reckon they'll go for that. I reckon they'll try and go for All Blacks next year, because why not? But also you know, we've got Aussies, we've got Kiwis, we've got Pat. And to me, even if we didn't have any, if it was like an All Blacks development, I still think you'd want to watch All Blacks play, wouldn't you?
Speaker 4:you'd want to just see them in the without doubt like just just aside to that even if it is. New Zealand B.
Speaker 3:We've still got the Haka we've still got the whole ritual before the game well, let's hope there's no smoke before the game. We could ruin that couldn't we?
Speaker 1:so yeah, so I reckon that's what I think. I reckon they're going to go all guns. Well, I mean, it would make sense. That's the last of the, the big three, I think, on the back of this one?
Speaker 4:were you thinking Argentina?
Speaker 1:because of obviously the Argentina yeah that kind of made sense.
Speaker 4:The contract you've now got. I quite like that. There's an idea and actually I wouldn't mind that.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'd go, I wouldn't mind that at all and actually I think that's got an air of kind of difference and our link. So who knows? We're saying we're going all blacks for Argentina next year. But, yeah, I mean, it was it. Oh, and the other thing I was going to mention was we saw the return of Oscar Lennon.
Speaker 5:Yeah, we did.
Speaker 1:Marmion played well actually and tried his best. He kind of sniped as much as he could. I mean we never really got any real pressure on them. That was the problem. But yeah, lennon came on, looked really good.
Speaker 4:I thought really sharp, he's got a really good little pass to be fair, he was a good little player, and him and Worsley.
Speaker 1:It was really good to see them working together as a halfback pairing because that could be at some sort of future for Bristol, so it was really good to see him back and I.
Speaker 3:He went off to the US, but some people down at the grounds and fans said he's been in New Zealand.
Speaker 1:Oh, right, so yeah, just trying to find some employment.
Speaker 4:Yeah, wow.
Speaker 3:I know.
Speaker 4:If you're going to go anywhere to learn, that's going to be the place, isn't?
Speaker 1:it. Yeah, absolutely that's where.
Speaker 4:Martin Johnson went, didn't he? He did, yeah, a lot of them, but anyway, so we enjoyed ourselves we didn't.
Speaker 1:We had a couple of pints afterwards, didn't we? We didn't hang around too long we spent a lot of time looking for our names on the season card wall and then I actually found my.
Speaker 5:Well, my daughter found my name and it was about.
Speaker 1:It was about 18 foot up and we just could see it. It was actually a really good spot. But I mean, it was a bit unfair on that. I don't know if people have seen that wall, but then some people's names are kind of obscured by the big kind of community 10 year wall lettering. Some of them are so far at the top. It's kind of wallpaper. I think you'd be quite impressed with it, lee, the way they've done it. But it got me thinking that it was fun. It was actually good fun looking for people's names up to about 10 foot max. So why, I just thought, why couldn't they just done that around?
Speaker 4:10 foot there's quite.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of white wall around the area. It's right by the sports bar. Maybe it's a football thing, maybe they don't want to overdo it, but I just sort of think it was such fun finding my name that not everybody's going to get that chance because someone's like 15 foot up at the top in the corner.
Speaker 1:So just a a thought, but I actually, as I said before, we hadn't really thought about it, but I quite like it. It's a nice idea. Anyway, that was that. Oh, we had one thing we were going to say the beer queues were still pretty bad, considering Beer queues were only 15,000. And of course, they probably didn't have as many staff on because of it. And they did. Ironically, there was the ironic fast-track beer machines Not in use, Weren't in use.
Speaker 4:Or the ones that were on a concourse?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't know why.
Speaker 1:Why wouldn't they be in use? But anyway, that's just.
Speaker 3:maybe they've broken down and there were some obviously visiting fans behind us moaning within minutes of the beer queues. Yeah, you know, of the beer queues.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you know, incentivising to come back, it's pretty poor, let's face it. I mean, if we criticise it, I mean the away fans, you know load of Aussies if they're in Bristol having a brilliant weekend. What are they wanting to do?
Speaker 1:they're wanting to get a few sherbets down in there yeah yeah of course, watch a bit of rugby and have a good night. I don't really know what the solution is. I mean, there were some people moaning about the staff were like you know, really.
Speaker 3:Disengaged. Disengaged 18-year-olds. Yeah, that was the reason.
Speaker 4:Yeah, but I mean, they were young kids.
Speaker 1:We can't blame the young kids, to be fair, I don't know what the solution is really and you can't make any more bars than there are.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 1:And you can't, I don't think, give or take a few kind of issues like that. I don't think you can serve it any quicker. I mean, you're a teacher, you look after kids at school.
Speaker 4:You know what I mean If you're not organised there'd be chaos, wouldn't there? Yeah, that's true, it just needs organisation and it needs a little bit of foresight, to know that we need to get, and I'm not talking about having pints standing around on the side for 30-odd minutes, because we all know that doesn't work, but just being a little bit more organised, I think, and getting these things out.
Speaker 1:But you know that wasn't the most important thing.
Speaker 4:And.
Speaker 5:I'm glad I went in the end.
Speaker 1:Yeah, partly because it was only 20 quid, so that was good too, but anyway, so we got that. So that. So, miles, that's your international weekend done. Obviously we've not had any Prem League games, but there have been a couple of Prem Cup games and yeah and I, so we played Bedford at home.
Speaker 3:you went to and I went to that game, yeah and I went because it was a.
Speaker 1:I claimed a free ticket and I went and sat in the corner of the South Stand, sort of near the Heineken you know big screen by the Heineken Lounge and it was a good game and we had a fully loaded team out there was, there was Revovo was playing, which we'll come back to in a minute, and various others, but it was quite.
Speaker 5:It was like a week ago now and we won.
Speaker 1:We scored like 11 tries, didn't we?
Speaker 3:and at one point 69-17.
Speaker 1:That's it, and it was at one point we had 7 individual try scorers and I was thinking this could be quite exciting. Could we get almost?
Speaker 5:all my team to score a try and then Harry Thacker scored a second one.
Speaker 1:Someone scored a brace it might have been. Ravobo scored a brace and then Harry Thacker. Yeah, vaca was playing. Yeah, it was kind of fun. I felt a bit sorry for Bedford. They got overpowered and you know, but then maybe they quite enjoyed coming there. There was a few pelters on social media about it. Not that many people there, but they kind of filled the lower lands down all the way to the edge of the south stand.
Speaker 1:And it was just a nice atmosphere and every time a try gets scored. They were playing Rosala and everyone was going and it was kind of a nice Saturday afternoon. And what was really good as well was that the Wi-Fi was strong enough for me to be watching the All Blacks England game on my phone at the same time, because no one else was there.
Speaker 1:So I was watching two games at once last Saturday, but yeah, I enjoyed it. It was very quiet outside, the Bristol Beer Factory kiosk wasn't busy at all, but Lewis was down and that was good. So yeah, I think so. We then you know it was Worsley played a good game. We had Diego Bailey, we had Paddy Pearce, so there was some good Bristol proper academy boys. You know, they're almost like in the first team, aren't they?
Speaker 1:they're not academy and they need to play and they look good. And what was? I suppose the only other comment I'd make was it was there is clearly showed the kind of bears way alignment. You know there was no box kicking.
Speaker 4:There was, there was a lot of playing there was a lot of.
Speaker 1:It was the same sort of and having said that, you know, I do wonder whether, as the weather gets bad, will we have to sort of adapt a little bit with that but anyway, that was it. So so that was good, so there's a lot of excitement. That were our first prem cup game. We have massive points difference but unfortunately after after this saturday.
Speaker 1:I think that points difference has gone back to zero because the boys who went down to the wreck uh got hammered 78, 19 and actually, when you look to the side, I was a little bit surprised when I saw that because we had Jan Thomas was captain, will Capon was playing, diego Bailey was playing, we had Jack Bates and Joe Jenkins were in the centre part who had basically dominated the players but we did actually have seven debutants like basically, by the looks of it, who else was in the front row?
Speaker 1:I think Leif might have been actually he played on.
Speaker 3:Friday. Now, who was the other I?
Speaker 1:don't know, actually we'd have to look that up.
Speaker 4:I wasn't sure so I mean the front row.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the front row was good but I mean, you know, so I don't know. It's hard to tell what sort of game it was. However, I thought rather than us, who actually didn't see it and don't know anything about the game at all apart from what we've seen is why don't we hear from the captain? And the captain on the day was Jan Thomas. Now, I don't know if that's the first time he's ever skippered Bristol, but for him he had a little post-match interview with Dan Albert from Radio Bristol and I thought let's listen to what he said.
Speaker 2:Jan, commiserations, today it was a hard day at the office, wasn't it? What would you bring away from this game, though? It's going to be a good thing, I suppose, particularly for the youngsters to come away from.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I think obviously we're bitterly disappointed with the result, especially obviously against your local rivals. So there's always going to be a little bit more. What's the word I'm looking for? Frustration. Yeah, I think a little bit hurt with the boys, but I think hurt with the boys. But I think just spoke to the lads there in the huddle just as we finished up there and I think the one positive for me and for the lads to take away is I think we had about 6-7 debuts today, a lot of young lads in that team and I think they can hold their heads up high. I've been in this situation before. I said that to. It's just how you learn off these games and I think these are the type of games you're going to learn from more than probably winning the game 50, 60 points, so if you're on the other side of it. So I just said look. I said keep your chin up, go away. We had a fantastic week. I thought the preparation was unbelievable for the boys. So there's no excuses for us.
Speaker 2:But, as we know, when you come onto game day, that's all that counts, but a massive learning for the boys. But I think they can take a lot of pride from that game today. I mean, there's obviously going to be frustration, but in a way, because some of the tries that they scored were from your own errors, does that in some ways help, because you know you can correct those.
Speaker 5:Yeah, exactly, and that was the point I made at half time, I think. We just said look like all the errors and most of the tries that they got was from our errors. It was all about us, that was the message all week, about us and the focus was on us. So I think, like you said, probably the positive if it is a positive is that there is a solution to it. I just said to the lads then again just make sure to go back, watch the game, have a look at it, see what you could have done better, because there's a lot of stuff in there that was positive and obviously, and obviously, there's a lot of stuff in there that we can work on going into the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and there is a new youngest player ever for Bristol as well, with Kai coming off the bench there at Scrum Half, and he looked pretty good when he came on, didn't he?
Speaker 5:Yeah, I think he's only been brought in this week. He was brought in sort of later into the week, obviously having the Australia game last night, so doubling it up today, but I thought he'd come in he on and he had a little bit of spark about him, so hopefully he can propel going forward it's been a busy week for Bristol Bears, isn't it?
Speaker 2:a game last night and a game today, and now I suppose you all go and watch the international yeah, we obviously got the down week this week now.
Speaker 5:So go away, rest, recover, rebuild there you go cut that short. Do you know what I loved about?
Speaker 4:that for me, listening to a Bristolian voice not pronouncing his T's, you know better. We were better than them.
Speaker 1:You know, I just love all that and also not, you know, not ashamed to have a pause and think what the word is he needs, what the word I'm looking for, and then got it. You know, not panicking. It's like a he didn't panic, jan. I thought that was a really good post match interview though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to be fair, I mean he couldn't have said a lot else, could he no, and I think you know, if anyone wondering why we're beeping, I mean he did say learnings, he did say work-ons, but yeah, I mean what else? In fact, he's actually true, that isn't a cliche, a game like that. You are going to learn a bit more.
Speaker 4:So, yeah, fair play to him. And, to be fair, the game was close, wasn't it from kick off for the first minute. So we were in it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we were in it for a little bit, I think we're proud of you to have an experienced head, a local lad captaining that young side yeah and he hit the nail on the head and he said lads you know, oh dear you, I've lost the train of thought. Now you learn more from the big defeats, like that they just were being you know not being whipping boys. But they'll go away. They'll realise I never won a game like that again and they'll come away stronger.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and we shouldn't forget I mean the injury that Jan had. What was it About a year ago?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 4:We were thinking that he might not even be in a Bristol Bearer shirt again. So for us I would always love listening to Jan having a little talk there on the old commentary and not pronouncing his T's all day long. Long may it continue.
Speaker 1:Brilliant. A couple of other things to mention is Rich Lane played at Fly Half for the first time in his whole career and you can imagine Pat probably had a bit of a panic on about Tuesday, wednesday, this week thinking how am I actually going to get two teams out and he obviously AJ got called up for the US Worsley he put in Australia. Friday night yeah, Australia and we know, because we have been banging on about this for a long time.
Speaker 1:But there ain't anybody else apart from Max Malins, jimmy Williams, who, were injured, and. Aj and Yancey was playing Friday. So yeah, I mean I do wonder whether it was like who fancies it? And you know he stepped up. I mean he's probably lucky later that John Afoa's not here anymore because, as we have said in the past, I bet John Afoa would have fancied going at fly-off.
Speaker 4:I mean, what a professional though, right, I mean, the guy is just, he's just so brilliant. You know the ultimate professional, really. And he's come from lower leagues, hasn't he? And he's stepped up and he, just, he's just such a team player. Rich Link.
Speaker 3:Love him. Yeah, talking of Worsley, I mean we like the cut of his jib on Friday night.
Speaker 5:Yeah his kicks to touch were sublime.
Speaker 3:Actually, I was really impressed he got good distance actually, and he was just quality, so I think he's you know, a good backup for AJ he. I'm sure he's learning off AJ.
Speaker 1:But actually that's just reminding me of something else this constant discussion about tens. I don't know if you boys had a chance to watch the Wales Fiji game today. Yes, Caleb.
Speaker 1:Caleb Muntz, who didn't got injured just before the World Cup, the Fijian 10. He had a great game today and he's always been signposted as a really good player. He's basically a Kiwi. He grew up in New Zealand and there was a lot of chatter on the socials about he would be a great signing for the Bears. And then somebody came on and said reckons that he could be coming because he's at the Fijian Drua.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and he's got a few contracts cooking up this season and I was just thinking, you know he would be, he would be a great signing yeah, because he plays the way we want to play.
Speaker 4:I'd go as far as to say I could see him in a bear shirt in a not too distant future.
Speaker 1:No, I mean, the other one we really hold our hopes out for is Damien McKenzie. Oh wow, yeah.
Speaker 4:But that's more of a wish, isn't it? That's your Christmas.
Speaker 3:Santa, yeah, absolutely, oh, I've been a good boy this year for Santa.
Speaker 4:Please can I have Damien McKenzie at?
Speaker 1:10? I mean, you know, if he turned up here he could learn off Lena, couldn't he?
Speaker 4:Oh absolutely.
Speaker 1:I'm talking about going back to the Prem Cup. Segueing back to the Prem Cup from Caleb Muntz is that I've now looked at the table and after our hammering of Bedford, and then, after Saturdays, we're now on minus 11.
Speaker 4:It's top two, though, isn't it?
Speaker 1:It's top two. So Bath at the moment have played two points difference 132, and 10 points. We've played two minus 11 points difference and one bonus point and five points. But Bed played to minus 11 points difference and one bonus point and five points. But Bedford have also got five, so they must have beaten Amptill, so we've got. Amptill in two weeks.
Speaker 3:And then we'll see how it goes. I assume we might get another five there.
Speaker 4:I mean we should say I mean, this is a progressive cup.
Speaker 5:It's for the youngsters to learn.
Speaker 4:You know it's not anything that unless you're Gloucester fans and you know you're desperate to win it I just. I just feel like as long as we get you know boys in that team to progress, yeah, you know, they'll hopefully step into the first team in a year or two's time and that'll be great it'd be good to think that some of those debutants and I think we should name them because I've got a list here so so.
Speaker 1:Kai Greely, who was young the youngest ever at 17. Yeah, ethan Surrey, ed Timpson, theo Male, jacob Cusick, peter Paramore, who, of course, is the son of Junior Paramore, our kit man, the kit man and Pat lookalike, yeah so yeah. So fair play to those boys. You'd like to think that maybe they might feel that they're in for a sniff, for the Ampt Hill game at least, or even the If you've done your complete research though is there any Bristolians in that?
Speaker 4:I've no idea. I didn't do that one. That's fair enough.
Speaker 1:I know that they were. I think Kai Greeley was at a school, he's at school somewhere and he had to come out of school. That's what I read. But on the other hand, on the back of that I then I was a bit bored. Today I thought, well, if he was the youngest, who's been our oldest ever debutante? Oh, and I threw that out there.
Speaker 4:Right Can.
Speaker 1:Debutant. So if Kai Green is our youngest, at 17, who's been our oldest debutant? In other words, you know, old boy, that we've signed? And I mean obviously there's the Bears era and then there's the kind of whole of Bristol rugby era.
Speaker 3:Oh, you're going back, are you?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so it's a difficult one, Okay? Oh well, I'll have a pop at George Smith.
Speaker 1:George Smith, that's what I thought, George Smith anyway, I tweeted this out, and then bristol bears the actual official site replied to us obviously bored as well, and said that's one for bristol stato. Obviously, neil williams yeah of course. Then on the back back that a lot of people had already come in. But anyway, the answer is and apparently neil said it is in the program, which proves I haven't actually read that the program all the way through. He was.
Speaker 4:It was jeff probin who played at some point in his career. How many games have I always played? I don't know. I'll have to look it up.
Speaker 1:I'll tell people to go and look at our go and look at our Twitter feed and you'll see it what age was? He, god knows, I don't know, I haven't looked it up.
Speaker 4:He must have been late. George Smith was what hang on, you keep talking while I find it and also that's really like weird that you say that, because Geoff Brobin, you always class him as like a Gloucester player.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah absolutely.
Speaker 1:So here we go, Obviously we're going way back.
Speaker 4:I didn't even realise. Neil Williams, here we go.
Speaker 1:So Bristol Stato, bristol Rug Stato at Bris Rug Stato. Neil Williams, the official historian. I mentioned that in the programme for Australia on Friday evening. Geoff Probin was 42 years, 280, 85 days old on his only appearance for the club. George Smith was 38 and had 48 appearances. Then Frank Bunce was the third oldest.
Speaker 2:Frank.
Speaker 1:Bunce, the Kiwi, played for us at some point. So there you go, bit of learning and you even had a printed programme for Friday Night Beat oh yeah, we didn't mention that you didn't have a chance to read it yet. Really good, well, no, I've been busy, but yeah it was a good programme.
Speaker 3:I've got a printed programme for England and Australia that's triggers, lovely, beautiful well, look, boys.
Speaker 1:I think we did say it was going to be kind of shortish, so let's just finish off with the last bit. We were going to mention the women's because the Bears women have been playing, they've had a couple of games and we, miles, showed a lot of commitment and last weekend we went to the game against.
Speaker 3:Harlequins down at Shelf Park.
Speaker 1:We did and I mean I had a double header at Bears because I did Bears women on that Friday, then I went to Bedford on the Saturday and yeah, unfortunately they got beaten. I was kind of expecting to win that game.
Speaker 3:I was. I mean to be fair. I think a lot of teams it's a bit of an unknown this season. There's teams who are doing year and vice versa, still early it was great to go up there and support the women's or some listeners up there, and up until half time I think there was only one point in it 2019 but, unfortunately, bristol ladies didn't score in the second half and got dominated by a fully loaded Quinn side, they've got the number 15 in the international kill down.
Speaker 1:You know, fully loaded Quinn side, they've got the number 15, international Kildon, who's phenomenal because she's quick. We had some of our. We did have some of our. We had Bottom back, we had Sarah Byrne back we did have a few of our internationals back but sadly went down to a 34-19 loss in the end.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they were good.
Speaker 1:I mean and I'm sure Bristol Bears women watchers will know exactly who I'm talking about but we did see young Millie David score an absolute, absolute belter of a try from R22. She was great and you know she has scored a few already and she's clearly Rapido and a name for the future. But then of course the Bears women played this weekend away at she did it again weekend away at Welford Road and they hammered them.
Speaker 1:She scored four tries and she got I think she got almost got young premiership women's rugby player of the month as well. They do that, so on that point.
Speaker 4:We should say congrats to Gabs as well.
Speaker 1:We should, for you know if you get a player of the month so, yeah, so Millie David looks like she's establishing herself as a real weapon, and she's only. I mean, she's very small, very slight blonde hair, but when she gets going it's like. It's like a streak of lightning going down the side.
Speaker 3:So that was great. I mean one loss, but one absolutely dominating win up at Welford Road, which is great, and I think they've got Loughborough.
Speaker 1:I believe next, but they haven't got one for two weeks so there's no. Bears games for two weeks now.
Speaker 4:I just wonder if they kind of did the old, the dual carriageway, double draw carriageway to get the old Caboza for the game.
Speaker 1:I don't know we should have told them we did bump into who's fast becoming our.
Speaker 3:You know, a very good friend of ours is Ella Lovibund yeah, we had a lovely chat with her when me and Mark met her after the match when she was dressed in lederhosen on the night out.
Speaker 1:We then saw her at the game and she wasn't actually in the 23 and I said what's going on? She's like rotation and seemed quite. She was kind of like I want to get back in sort of attitude. And I did notice she was. She was back in the 23 for that. But she was saying, yeah, you know, we've got a lot of players now, a lot of competition for places, a lot of rotation.
Speaker 1:So, um, you know, so she, um, uh, she, she, she was seemed quite pleased to see us actually me and miles, because I think she quite liked the fact that she, she got on our podcast, so I was quite impressed.
Speaker 3:I remember a little shout out, yeah, a little shout out to.
Speaker 1:Ella and we want to back her. You know she's good, sweet, she's pushing. And then we saw that actually on Leicester Tigers, our Jenny, who was the other one, who's the teacher from Nailsea- Jenny Herring she started on Saturday at Tigers, so it's good to see some of our our known players get in there as well so, yeah, it was good. So they, I think you know, as you say it's going to, it looks like it might be a little bit more competitive.
Speaker 1:This season it does with Harlequins getting back in the mix? It's not, but I think so we've got to remember last season we didn't start great.
Speaker 4:No, we had right at the end, wouldn't it matter?
Speaker 1:so I would say the next game is Saturday, the 23rd of November, 2pm. Loughborough Lightning and it is at Shaftesbury Park, and I think what's the name plays for Loughborough, the one that's on the telly, the one that beat us in the podcast awards. Good, emily Scarrett, I don't know. Yeah, so I think she'll be playing. She's a good quality player, so it'd be good to go. So if you're not doing anything on saturday, the 23rd, 2 pm, get down there, get a shaft yeah um, yeah, so that's it really, I think, um, it's been a, it's been a kind of.
Speaker 1:It's been quite nice getting a getting away from the slight pressure of the premiership. It's been quite. I do love these autumn internationals. I've enjoyed it's become a bit of a thing.
Speaker 4:I hate it. Do you hate? You hate it? I really like it. Do you know why I hate it? It's because we've I don't know. It just feels like. For me it's all about premiership. Yeah, we're doing well. It almost feels like when we have a break well A, when the internationals go on, we always get injuries. Yeah, knows how many times for England even if he's gone to play wrestling and it just feels like we lose a bit of momentum from it, but hopefully this time we won't but I do love watching the autumn in sessions, but just for me, I'd rather watch bears yeah, I know what you mean, so we just need a few more
Speaker 5:teams in the league. That's the trouble, though, isn't it? Yeah, but that is another issue.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, so, boys, any other business. You've got something. Miles Well, there's a little business. We got a lovely email this week didn't we, we did.
Speaker 3:Obviously, last week we were chatting about pronunciations.
Speaker 5:Do you want me to read it?
Speaker 3:out Gave us some clarification. Yes, and obviously it wasn't Rick Mullins, was it? No, no, no, better he was mentioned, here we go.
Speaker 1:So we got an email.
Speaker 3:We do get email.
Speaker 1:We're getting a few more emails now, actually from listeners and you know who like to get involved in what we're doing. But this one was from Richard Pitt.
Speaker 2:Oh, so those names sound familiar.
Speaker 1:Hang on hang on and it says Gents enjoying the pod. Good to catch up with Pete recently. He can't be that bad a geography teacher, as Chloe turned out okay. So the weird thing was I bumped into him at the Saints game that I taught his niece A-level geography and she was there with her dad and he was there. I was like like, all right, how you doing, he goes, he goes. Yeah, I'm, uh, I'm her dad's brother.
Speaker 1:So pit anyway so, um, he said I know the pa in the dolman can be a bit flaky with a little wink emoji but do you?
Speaker 1:ever listen to a word I say, and of course we're all like hanging our heads in shame. Already he said at the beginning of every season I do a bit of research into the new players, especially when it comes to pronouncing their names correctly. I was pretty confident. But with the ongoing discussion, just to make sure, I double checked with the man himself before the Bedford game. Nick Mullins says one thing, you say another, but neither of you are right. None of us are right, it's not Ravauvau or Ravuvu, it's Ravuvo, ravuvo.
Speaker 3:As in.
Speaker 1:Wake me up before you, Ravuvo. So there we go. It has come right from the top. So anybody out there, it is Ravuvo.
Speaker 4:Actually, do you know what Can we? Just can we ping an email across the nick mullins?
Speaker 3:tonight we will, and and just put him right, because I mean, let's get one over on nick mullins, come on, that'll be amazing, wouldn't it?
Speaker 4:but there's more he said yeah, I hope that helps. We're not pronouncing genji wrong. No, no, no for that hope that helps.
Speaker 1:I look forward to hearing wham renditions drifting across the gate. But that's the. There you go. It's genius. We've been talking about a song. Like me, it's there. This is the thing. Yeah, slick has given us the in. Now, to be fair to slick, if he's given us the in, we're expecting him to be leading it on the microphone absolutely yeah but he also said, and while we're on the subject, it's now lango, just saying now, we've always.
Speaker 1:I emailed, replied to him, said yeah, we know that, but of course we've always got the now bit, but it's the now bit. We do get wrong and I do.
Speaker 4:I know, to be fair, I always call him Siva so I'm out of that, but it's.
Speaker 3:Siva now lango now lango and Ravuvo, so after that.
Speaker 1:I would say a gentle, what would we call that? It was a friendly. But there was a little edge there. Boys, get it right, because he's a pro.
Speaker 4:Well, to be fair you're the teacher. I know You've been marked down.
Speaker 1:I know I'm taking it, but then he has finished by saying keep up the good work Best.
Speaker 3:Slick the good work best slick nice. That was a little bit, you know, back in the day it wasn't a cane.
Speaker 4:We didn't get a cane in, did we no? No, but we just got a little bit of a. He just showed us the back of his hand, I know for a second and I did reply to him.
Speaker 1:Actually I did say hi, slick Pete here brackets hanging head in shame we do listen although the heart, the whole da da, da, da, da da often takes our focus away from the name of the try scorer. But that's no excuse. We panic, live on air.
Speaker 3:We'll take the learnings there we go, so anyway cheers slick.
Speaker 1:We appreciate that, yeah, but we should get in touch, we should get your people talk to our people and we could see if we could talk about getting wake me up before rovovo. Getting that going around the crowd, that would be great um anyway that was. That was one bit of any other business uh not really anything else. Um, all I would say is that we're thinking, boys, we may be releasing another episode this week. Um and uh, this is our little roundup, but because we've got nothing coming up for
Speaker 4:two weeks we're not going to do anything.
Speaker 1:We got bored fellas, didn't we? Yeah, we got nothing happening next Sunday.
Speaker 1:We thought we might sort of try and fill the gap for next week. So, without going into a bit of detail, you've got this one as a kind of roundup of the last couple of weeks. But it might not be the only thing we're going to get out in the next few days. So watch this space and I think, boys. On that note, I think we should wrap it up. We should say I hope everybody enjoys the two weeks of not having to think about bears at all.
Speaker 5:Listening to us.
Speaker 1:And also not listening to us. But also Lee obviously would be a bit upset because there's no Bristol Bear game to think about and just all to internationals. We've got England against South Africa next weekend. Hide behind the sofa. But if Genji and Harry play, we look forward to them doing a good account themselves, which I'm sure they would. Apart from that, same as usual, stay safe.
Speaker 4:Come on, you Bears, which I'm sure they would. Apart from that, same as usual Stay safe, stay safe and Come on, you bears. Come on, you bears.
