Bristol Bears
Bristol Bears (officially Bristol Rugby Club or Bristol Rugby) are a professional rugby union club based in Bristol, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby.
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Full name | Bristol Rugby Club | ||
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Union | Gloucestershire RFU | ||
Nickname(s) | Bears, Bris | ||
Founded | 1888 | ||
Location | Bristol, England | ||
Ground(s) | Ashton Gate Stadium (Capacity: 27,000) | ||
Chairman | Chris Booy | ||
CEO | Mark Tainton | ||
Director of Rugby | Pat Lam | ||
Captain(s) | Steven Luatua | ||
Most caps | Darren Crompton (138) | ||
Top scorer | Felipe Contepomi (573) | ||
Most tries | David Lemi (34) | ||
League(s) | Premiership Rugby | ||
2020–21 | 1st (Play-off Semi-finalists) | ||
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Official website | |||
www | |||
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The club was founded as Bristol Football Club in 1888; between 1921 and 2014 Bristol's home matches were played at the Memorial Ground and since 2014 Bristol play home matches at Ashton Gate Stadium in the south-west of the city. The current head coach is Pat Lam who was appointed in 2017. In the 2021-22 Premiership Rugby season Bristol finished 10th entitling them to compete in the 2022-23 European Rugby Challenge Cup.
In June 2018 the club rebranded as Bristol Bears; between 2001 and 2005 the club were known as Bristol Shoguns due to a sponsorship deal with Mitsubishi.[1]
Bristol won the 1983 John Player Cup and have also won England's second division four times, most recently in 2017–18. In 2019-2020, Bristol won The European Challenge Cup for the first time.