Bristol will learn from 'harsh' final - Ward

Bristol were beaten by Gloucester-Hartpury in their first Premiership final appearance

Bristol Bears were taught a "harsh lesson" in their Women's Premiership final defeat by Gloucester-Hartpury, said head coach Dave Ward.

The Bears were 17-7 up at the break but the defending champions scored four tries and 26 unanswered points in the second half to win their second successive title 36-24.

Ward's side were playing in their first ever league final against their West Country rivals after finishing third in the Premiership table.

"We've got to learn from it, it's such a harsh lesson to learn on finals day," Ward told BBC Radio Bristol.

"But the season goes pretty fast. Next season, we'll be done by March, that's not a lot of time.

"We're in a great spell at the moment in terms of we've won six of our last eight in the Premiership. We want to make sure we hit the ground running."

After reaching the semi-finals the last two seasons but falling short, Bristol pulled off an impressive performance to stun two-time champions Saracens at their home ground and get to their first final.

Like Gloucester, Bristol have been building a squad packed with international talent and it was England front-row duo Hannah Botterman and Lark Atkin-Davies, and Wales wing Courtney Keight, who were among their try-scorers at Sandy Park.

"We're at a good place with our squad, it's not going to change too much so we've just got to make sure we improve it a little bit more," Ward said.

England and Bristol prop Sarah Bern - who returned to the squad after six months out with injury - said the squad had "come so far" despite falling just short.

"First-half, if you spoke to me I would have said it is going to be our day... That would have been the cherry on the top... But next season's definitely going to be Bristol's year," she said.