Premiership: Bristol 17-3 Leicester - Bears beat Tigers to stretch lead at top

Piers O'Conor's try was Bristol's second in five minutes against Leicester's 14 men

Premiership leaders Bristol Bears completed their eighth win in 11 games this season as they beat Leicester 17-3 to cement their place at the top.

Following second-placed Exeter's slip-up at Sale on Friday night, Bristol go six points clear.

But it was not a great performance by Bristol, who came from 3-0 down to score both their tries against 14 men.

Will Capon and Piers O'Conor both went over for converted scores in a five-minute burst just before the break.

Ioan Lloyd landed both conversions and a second-half penalty, the only score of the second half.

But Tigers had taken the lead through an early Joaquin Diaz Bonilla penalty and were only undone when they had centre Matias Moroni yellow-carded for a deliberate knock-on 32 minutes.

Within two minutes, Bristol hooker Capon was over before centre O'Conor then finished off a well-worked move to go under the posts.

After being 14-3 down at the break, Tigers rallied well, despite being without their missing international players as well as suspended pair Jasper Wiese and Hanro Liebenberg.

In total, under-strength Leicester had made 11 changes from last Saturday's home win over Wasps, when they played almost three quarters of the game a player short and ended with 13 men.

But they did well to keep the second-half score down to just one Lloyd penalty as Bristol, held to a 34-34 draw at London Irish last Sunday, laboured well short of collecting the try bonus point they expected at half-time.

Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam:

"We are never going to get anything easy now we are top of the table. And it's never easy against Leicester. They threw everything at us.

"It was an invaluable experience for some of our younger players to test our skills. We had to defend a lot because of our errors as we regularly turned over ball at the breakdown.

"Our ball-carrying was loose. That's an important part of our game, which is based on continuity. But I'm pleased with our defence after last week, when we conceded three tries in a 20-minute period which cost us two points at London Irish."

Leicester skipper Tom Youngs:

"We made 11 changes but you have to regularly rotate your side as the game is too physical to do otherwise. The youngsters showed a lot of steel in difficult circumstances.

"They learnt a lot from this. Steve Borthwick has brought in a lot of guys, so it's a new group and it takes a lot for them to get used to each other.

"We are not far away but the last 5% in terms of improvement takes time. I am very pleased with the fight we are showing and that will soon turn into results."

Bristol: C Piutau; Morahan, O'Conor, Leiua, Naulago; Lloyd, Uren; Woolmore, Capon, Afoa, Vui, Joyce, Luatua, Thomas, Heenan.

Replacements: Kloska, Thomas, Armstrong, Holmes, Harding, Kessell, Eden, Adeolokun.

Leicester: Murimurivalu; Van Wyk, Moroni, Kelly, Porter; Diaz Bonilla, Van Poortvliet; Leatigaga, Youngs, Heyes, Henderson, Lavanini, Wells, Reffell, Chessum.

Replacements: Clare, Whitcombe, Cole, Green, Wallace, White, McPhillips, Simmons.

Sin-bin: Moroni (32)

Referee: Christophe Ridley (RFU).

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