Bristol foiled by late Hipkiss try for Leicester

Bristol 17 Leicester 23: Bristol came agonisingly close to a first Guinness Premiership victory since November after pushing Leicester all the way at the Memorial Stadium, writes Steve Cotton.

The Tigers had trailed 14-7 at half-time – and 17-13 with little more than 15 minutes to play – before a late Dan Hipkiss try sent them back to the top of the table.

Bristol remain firmly rooted to the bottom, 11 points behind Worcester, and have lost eight Premiership matches in a row.

But their improvement under new head coach Paul Hull continued as they led for lengthy periods against a Leicester side heavily depleted by injuries and international call-ups.

It had looked so promising when Bristol produced a fine all-round performance to take a half-time lead thanks to tries from Luke Arscott and David Lemi.

A Dan Cole try had given Leicester the initiative early on, only for Bristol to strike back with two finely constructed tries of their own.

Two Sam Vesty penalties brought Leicester back to within a point after the break, but when Ed Barnes' penalty pushed Bristol's lead back out to 17-13 a second Premiership victory of the season looked likely.

But Ben Youngs set up Hipkiss to score the late try that denied Bristol, who now look even more certain to drop out of the Premiership at the end of the season.

Barnes missed a 40-metre penalty for Bristol shortly before Leicester took the lead through Cole's try.

Leicester kept the ball for a lengthy period in the Bristol 22, before prop Cole popped out of a ruck 10 metres from the line, evaded Joe El Abd and ran in to score.

Julien Dupuy converted for a 7-0 lead before he became the second Leicester player to hobble off, following the earlier departure of Matt Smith.

Bristol's response to falling behind was positive, and they soon levelled after Arscott's excellent try.

He gathered Alesana Tuilagi's down-field kick a few metres inside his own half, ran it back at the Leicester defence and switched play to Robert Sidoli. When the lock was tackled a few yards short, Arscott arrived in support to score a fine try.

Barnes converted to level, before Tuilagi wasted two good scoring opportunities for the visitors.

First he tossed the ball straight to Nathan Brew with men available outside him in the Bristol 22, then he overran Dupuy following the scrum-half's powerful break.

Dupuy was injured during his winding run and left the field, and it was not long before Leicester shipped a second try.

Hooker Mark Regan, making his 200th Premiership appearance, threw to the back of a line-out.

The ball was quickly played to Shaun Perry, who launched a break, before the ball was passed through the hands of Barnes, Neil Brew, Nathan Brew and finally Lemi, who raced in from 20 metres to complete a wonderful team move.

Barnes converted to see the hosts into a 14-7 half-time lead, with Leicester losing a third player – lock-turned-flanker Marco Wentzel – to injury before the interval.

Leicester clawed back three points when Bristol killed the ball a few metres from their own line under the posts. Rather than taking the scrum, Leicester went for the posts, and Vesty made it 14-10.

Vesty was on target again shortly before the hour mark, landing a penalty from more than 40 metres to bring the Tigers back to within one point.

If Bristol's lead was fragile, their resolve was anything but. And after riding another wave of Leicester pressure, they responded with a score of their own.

Good work from Neil Brew and Sidoli carried Bristol into the Leicester 22, and when the visitors infringed at a ruck, Barnes kicked the penalty to give Bristol a 17-13 lead.

But Leicester hit straight back, taking the lead thanks to Youngs' quick thinking.

The Tigers were awarded a penalty 40 metres out, and replacement scrum-half Youngs tapped and ran while Bristol reorganised.

Centre Hipkiss tracked him all the way, and took the scoring pass under the posts to give Vesty a simple conversion for a 20-17 lead.

Scott Hamilton knocked on a metre short as Leicester threatened to increase their advantage. And even though Vesty added another penalty with one minute to go, Bristol still took a losing bonus point from an encouraging evening.

Bristol: L Arscott; T Arscott, Nathan Brew, Neil Brew, D Lemi; E Barnes, S Perry (H Thomas 80); A Clarke (M Irish 57), M Regan, D Crompton, R Winters (M Sambucetti 57), R Sidoli, A To'oala (R Pennycook 57), J El Abd (capt), D Ward-Smith. Reps not used: O Hayes, W Thompson, C Ashwin.

Scorers: Tries – L Arscott, Lemi. Cons – Barnes (2). Pen – Barnes.

Leicester: S Hamilton; M Smith (T Varndell 14), D Hipkiss, A Mauger (capt), A Tuilagi; S Vesty, J Dupuy (B Youngs 25); M Ayerza, M Davies, D Cole (S Bonorino 75), L Deacon, B Kay, M Wentzel (B Herring 40), B Woods, B Pienaar. Reps not used: G Chuter, D Hemingway, D Hougaard.

Scorers: Tries – Cole, Hipkiss. Cons – Dupuy, Vesty. Pens – Vesty (3).

Ref: G Garner. Att: 6,037.