It's game day.
Bristol Bears travel to Leicester Tigers on Saturday lunchtime in Round 21 of the 2022/23 Gallagher Premiership.
Pat Lam's side are on a roll, going from bottom of the table to seventh after four back-to-back wins in the league including a stunning 51-26 victory over Harlequins last time out to back up the 62-8 win over Northampton Saints the week before.
But last season's champions Tigers have also won their last four Premiership games to climb the table into third place heading into the weekend.
The game kicks-off at12.30pm on Saturday
Follow all the build-up, team news, live play-by-play match updates, reaction, stats, analysis and highlights from Welford Road with regular updates below...
Key Events
Match action
Leicester Tigers tame ill-disciplined Bristol Bears to end winning run
Bristol Bears' winning run in the Gallagher Premiership was halted on Saturday by a Leicester Tigers side who looked like title contenders once again.
Handre Pollard inspired last season's champions to a statement 46-24 win at Welford to move away from the pack in the race for the playoffs and help secure their place in third, while Bristol will now need to win all three of their remaining games to have the faintest chance of joining them.
Pollard ended with 19 points including a try as Tigers ran in six with skipper Julián Montoya scoring a brace, along with scores from Ben Youngs, Anthony Watson and replacement hooker Charlie Clare.
Bristol contributed plenty to the game, with tries from Harry Thacker, Gabriel Ibitoye and Harry Randall and seven points from the boot of AJ MacGinty, with Ibitoye converting one, but the West Country club’s four-match winning run came to a halt as a yellow card for co-captain Steven Luatua, combined with the strength of the hosts' bench saw the game get away from them.
Pat Lam on the controversial disallowed try for Magnus Bradbury
Bradbury had a try disallowed try on 42 minutes when he got back to his feet to touch the ball down after Anthony Watson had come across to bring him down but slid off the number eight, meaning he wasn’t held. Referee Matthew Carley awarded a penalty against the Scottish international number eight for a double movement judging the tackle had been complete.
Lam said:
"We believed we scored a good try with Magnus, but it was ruled out.
"We will go through the review process. It is like an ankle tap, if you are not down you can get up and run.
"But we did score soon after that through Gabriel Ibitoye and we only have ourselves to blame for the result with our indiscipline which we have been really good at over the last four weeks.
Reaction from Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam
Lam said:
"It is never easy here but we made it a bit more difficult for ourselves. I can’t fault the effort.
"We have prided ourselves over the last few weeks on building pressure by keeping the ball but we were really loose today, that rain just as we came out made a difference and we kept turning the ball over.
"I was really proud of our scrum because we gave Leicester 10 scrum put ins in the first half which tells the story of our mistakes.
Tigers head coach Richard Wigglesworth on Handre Pollard
"He is everything you would expect from a world-class 10. He has got an intensity to him that when he speaks you listen.
"He was really good today, he has been good for weeks. It is not just about what he does on a Saturday it is about what he does in the week. Senior players are really driving the environment at the moment, they are grabbing hold of it and that makes the weeks go smoothly as they are more competitive. The whole squad is driving what we are doing and he personified that today.
"I thought he was really good."
Reaction from Tigers head coach Richard Wigglesworth
Wigglesworth said:
"Parts of that performance were very good, especially in the second half. We were slightly off in a few areas but the boys tightened them up and we found an advantage with all their injuries and brought it home.
"I don’t think we can catch Sale in second, we are just concentrating on the next game, if we keep winning the next game we will put ourselves in the top four and in the best possible position.
FULL TIME - Leicester Tigers 46 Bristol Bears 24
A chastening defeat for Bristol against last season's champions.
46-24
TRY - Leicester Tigers
Tigers win a penalty at the scrum and take a quick tap.
It looks like replacement hooker Charlie Clare might have powered over there.
Jimmy Gopperth lands the extras to close out the game.
46-24
Bristol attacking from deep
Charles Piutau is stepping from behind his own tryline as he is forced back to field a kick.
He gets back onto the field as the Bears chase a bonus point try, but Steven Luatua knocks on to hand Tigers a 5m scrum.
39-24
Bristol break from deep again
Semi Radradra, who has been quiet this game, finally gets a chance to shine as he breaks from deep but the Fijian looks for contact rather than the step.
Of course he gets the offload away but by that point the Leicester defence have had time to recover and the chance is done.
39-24
TRY - Bristol Bears
Bristol break from deep down the right wing through Ioan Lloyd who runs the ball out of his half, draws a defender and passes inside to Harry Randall who shows his pace with a lovely right foot step before putting on the jets to finish under the posts.
Gabriel Ibitoye, strangely, converts.
39-24
Tigers pumped up
James Williams escapes on the outside arc for Bristol but has his pass intercepted by Freddie Steward.
Anthony Watson then counters as he runs out to in.
36-17
TRY - Leicester Tigers
That is inspired play by Handre Pollard who has been in wonderful form today.
He spots there is no one in the Bristol backfield and chips over the defence for himself, the ball bounces kindly and he races onto it to score under the posts before converting his own score.
36-17
Tigers defence air tight
Bristol just can't find a way through the Leicester defence.
Ellis Genge, who has been on the pitch for 10 minutes, puts his head down to get over the gainline and AJ MacGinty steps and weaves, but the are minor gains.
The theme is Bristol are forced to kick the ball away after running out of ideas and more often than not Mike Brown has taken the ball cleanly.
29-17
TRY - Leicester Tigers
Julián Montoya is over for his second try of the game from a maul, with a real flexing of the muscles from the Tigers pack to power over.
Handre Pollard adds the extras.
That is the bonus point try for Leicester.
29-17
YELLOW CARD - Bristol Bears
Steven Luatua is shown yellow as the penalties against his side continue to add up.
He is given 10 minutes for bringing down a maul.
Tigers kick to the corner again.
22-17
Bristol putting themselves in trouble
The Bears invite Tigers into their 22 with a pair of penalties, the first for not releasing against new hooker Red Davies on half way.
The second for offisde against Dan Thomas.
Handre Pollard pumps the ball into the corner.
22-17
TRY - Leicester Tigers
Bristol are straight back on defence after a tackle on a Leicester player in the air allowed Handre Pollard to kick to the corner.
At the third time of asking, with the Bears having conceded back to back penalties defending the maul, Tigers maul their way over from a 5m lineout.
Skipper Julián Montoya touches it down.
Pollard converts from wide out to the left.
22-17
TRY - Bristol Bears
Gabriel Ibitoye is over.
Steven Luatua charges down a kick from Handre Pollard.
The ball bounces to James Williams who kicks through.
Harry Randall and Williams chase hard to compete for the ball with Pollard who can't gather the bouncing ball.
Ibitoye comes from behind and picks up and gets over the line despite a great recovery tackle from Julián Montoya.
AJ MacGinty adds the extras.
15-17
HIA
Max Lahiff looks to have taken a blow to the head and is replaced by young George Kloska.
I think this is a HIA.
This is going to be the biggest 34 minutes of Kloska's career as a tighthead prop.
Harry Thacker is also limping.
15-10
Big collisions
Tigers are on the attack and work the ball wide for Mike Brown to burst down the left wing - what a signing he has been.
But Brown is smashed by Charles Piutau to end the attack.
15-10
NO TRY - Bristol Bears
That is controversial.
Magnus Bradbury is over in the corner after being put away down the wing by Gabriel Ibitoye.
Anthony Watson gets a cross to bring down the Scottish international number eight just short of the line but he slips off the forward who reachs out and touches down.
However referee Matthew Carley says it was a double movement and awards a penalty against the Bears.
I think the officials have got that one wrong as Bradbury wasn't held.
That is going to be a massive talking point post match.
15-10
SECOND HALF KICKS OFF
The teams are back out in the sunshine and AJ MacGinty gets the game back underway.
Mike Brown takes cleanly.
15-10
Match action
HALF TIME - Leicester Tigers 15 Bristol Bears 10
This game is still wide open. The weather has caused Bristol problems and Tigers have one hell of a bench to bring on in the second half.
15-10
Chaotic rugby
Harry Randall has a pass intercepted by Matt Scott but then win the ball back.
Bristol opt to kick but the ball is charged down however it falls nicely into the path of Ioan Lloyd and the visitors attack again.
After a mad flurry on the pitch the ball is booted off the park for the half time whistle.
15-10
