Bristol Bears were beaten 49-12 by the DHL Stormers in Round One of the 2026/27 Investec Champions Cup

Bristol Bear’s youngest-ever side in the Champions Cup ended up being on the end of a 49-12 thumping away at Cape Town-based side the DHL Stormers on Saturday, but the scoreline did not tell the full story.

With Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam having kept the majority of his star players back in England, through a combination of injuries and a choice to prioritise the Gallagher PREM right now, where the club are sitting just two points off top spot, the Bears went into the game as significant underdogs.

No English side can go to South Africa and win having left the likes of Harry Randall, AJ MacGinty and Louis Rees-Zammit back at home out of choice, along with Ellis Genge, Benhard Janes van Rensbury, Tom Jordan, Gabriel Oghre, Bill Mata and Kalaveti Ravouvou in the rehab room.

And yet, Lam will fly back to the UK, likely feeling harshly done by the officials, as at least three of the hosts' seven tries had significant forward passes during their build-up that were missed.

Crucially, that included the first two tries scored by the South African’s with the Bears scrapping to stay in the fight.

In the end, braces from Leolin Zas, Jonathan Roche, and single scores from Seabelo Senatla, Warrick Gelant, Andre-Hugo Venter, took the Stormers top of Pool 3, having secured a bonus-point win, despite losing hooker JJ Kotze to a 20-minute red card for a head-on-head collision. Springbok star Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu added 14 points from the kicking tee.

The Bears crossed twice through Joe Owen and Sol Moody - on his Champions Cup debut - but were too wasteful with their opportunities to ever really test the hosts, despite the fact the Stormers were a long way off their top form as well.

Post-match, Bears captain for the day Kieran Marmion said: “I am proud of the lads. I thought we applied a lot of pressure throughout the game. It got away from us in the end, but there were a lot of young lads in that team, a lot of lads who haven’t got much experience, but they fought really well, especially in that first 60 minutes.”

The Stormers opened the scoring in the seventh minute with a slice of luck, as a misplaced bounce pass seemed to throw the Bears' defence, and a quick, forward-looking pop pass from tighthead Sazi Sandi put former sevens star Senatla through a gap and he beat Aidan Boshoff for pace on the outside to score in the corner.

Two minutes later the Stormers could have had a second, but a knock-on from Zas saw Cobus Reinach have a score scrubbed off.

But it was just a matter of time as the Stormers struck again, with a at best flat pass from Damian Willemse, who turned to check if the referee thought it was forward the split second after he threw it, releasing Senatla, who stepped Boshoff and Worsley before popping the ball inside to Zas.

At 14-0 down, Bristol responded, camping themselves in the opposition 22, meaning a clearing kick from the hosts after stealing lineout didn’t make much ground and captain for the day Marmion was able to release Owen down the blindside, and the big flanker hit top speed, bounced off Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu to score his first Champions Cup try. Worsley converted brilliantly.

The Stormers added a try for centre Roche, but shortly before half-time the Bears were given a glimmer of hope at being able to cause a massive upset as hooker JJ Kotze was shown a 20-minute red card for a head-on-head collision with Marmion.

However, the Bears were unable to capitalise on their extra man, and could even have gone further behind as Reinach had a second try disallowed after intercepting a pass from Jack Bates and running in from 50m out.

Only a high tackle from Zas, which earned him a yellow card and saw the Stormers go down to 13 men for a few minutes, saved the Bears.

Playing with two extra men, Bristol breached the URC side’s defence off the back of a maul, set up from a lineout 8m out. Replacement hooker Moody broke off as the maul spun in field and had the strength to burst over the line and wrestle the ball down.

But calamity struck shortly after as Boshoff and Marmion got into a disastrous mix-up trying to claim a cross-field kick from Feinberg-Mngomezulu and almost comically crashed into each other, allowing the ball to spill to allow Roche to gather and score.

Gelant, Venter and Zas scored tries in the final 10 minutes, with Lam having emptied his bench and the contest settled.

Bristol will now turn their attention to Exeter Chiefs coming to Ashton Gate on Saturday in the Gallagher PREM.

DHL Stormers: 15. Damian Willemse, 14. Seabelo Senatla, 13. Jonathan Roche, 12. Jonathan Roche, 11. Leolin Zas, 10. Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9. Cobus Reinach, 1. Vernon Matongo, 2. JJ Kotze, 3. Sazi Sandi, 4. Adre Smith, 5. JD Schickerling, 6. Paul de Villiers, 7. Siya Kolisi, 8. Evan Roos

Replacements:16. Andre-Hugo Venter, 17. Ntuthuko Mchunu, 18. Zachary Porthen, 19. Connor Evans, 20. Riley Norton, 21. Deon Fourie, 22. Hasseim Pead, 23. Warrick Gelant

Bristol Bears: 15. Tobi Wilson, 14. Max Pepper, 13. Matias Moroni, 12. Jack Bates, 11. Aidan Boshoff, 10. Sam Worsley, 9. Kieran Marmion (c), 1. Jake Woolmore, 2. Tomas Gwilliam, 3. Jimmy Halliwell, 4. Pedro Rubiolo, 5. Josh Caulfield, 6. Joe Owen, 7. Kenzie Jenkins, 8. Luka Ivanishvili

Replacements: 16. Sol Moody, 17. Andrew Turner, 18. Sam Scott, 19. Harry Wells, 20. Paddy Pearce, 21. Ollie Harris, 22. James Williams, 23. Victor Worsnip

Referee: Kevin Bralley (Fra)

Assistant referees: Vincent Blasco Baque (Fra), Flavien Hourquet (Fra)

TMO: Eric Gauzins (Fra)