Cup final is 'huge' opportunity for Bristol - Ward

Bristol players celebrate a try during their Allianz Cup semi-final win against Gloucester-Hartpury

Bristol Bears have a “huge” opportunity to win a major trophy for the first time when they appear in Sunday’s Allianz Cup final, said head coach Dave Ward.

Bears have home advantage when they face Saracens at Shaftesbury Park.

They beat Premiership defending champions and current league leaders Gloucester-Hartpury 54-28 in their semi-final to reach the final for the first time.

“From when I first came into this role at Bears, we talked about trophies and the fact there’s two available for us – the cup and the league – every season,” Ward told BBC Radio Bristol.

“We’ve been in some semi-finals, we’re finally in a final which is amazing, but now we’ve got to go one step further and win it and we want to do that in front of our home fans.

“The opportunity to do that on Sunday is huge and one we won’t underestimate.”

Bristol are two places and four points below Saracens in the league table, although they did beat the three-times Premiership champions and last year’s beaten cup finalists 35-10 in their most recent league meeting in March.

Ward’s side have lost only one of their past seven games in all competitions stretching back to the start of January.

“We’re all excited by it but the teams that win finals are the teams that build that consistency and that level of performance,” added Ward.

“Keeping that high rhythm of performance will get us to where we want to go. Some of the rugby we played in that semi-final was fantastic, if we can replicate that – or certainly aim to replicate some of that – I think we’ll be fine.”