Bristol 14-18 Harlequins
Bears’ playoff hopes hit after defeat in Cardiff
In theory Bristol’s Big Day Out concept in Cardiff had all the right ingredients. Here was a chance to attract a few more floating voters and show them a good time in one of the world’s great stadiums. For the Prem as a whole it also massages the league’s aggregate attendance figures and projects the sense of a tournament growing steadily bigger and better.
So much for best-laid plans. The attendance was about 6,000 fewer than the club’s previous game in Cardiff last season and the outcome also did nothing for Bristolian blood pressure as the Bears suffered a serious dent to their playoff chances at the hands of a Harlequins side winless in their previous six matches.
Quins, however, fully deserved this morale-boosting win, in effect sealed by a 58th-minute try from their Argentina winger Rodrigo Isgró. The London side have had a dire season but this week’s announcement of a reshuffled coaching staff for next season seemed to encourage them to draw a line in the sand. Their defensive performance was certainly full of guts and never allowed the Bears to get into their stride.
