A video by Bristol Bears announcing the arrival of the real Semi Radradra in the Gallagher Premiership has gone viral since the club posted a tweet early on Saturday.
There was much negative commentary last weekend following the restart of the Premiership where explosive players such as Fijian flyer Radradra and new Sale signing Manu Tuilagi were largely deprived of the ball.
Their lack of involvement in the action was attributed to low frills rugby in penalty ridden matches – the six games across the opening weekend of the Premiership suffered from 164 penalties being awarded, an average of more than 27 per game.
Following much debate in the aftermath of the round 14 matches which restarted the Premiership following its five-month lockdown due to the pandemic, commentary that included Sale boss Steve Diamond dismissing scrums as boring, there were hopes that teams would commit to producing better play in round 15.
This is what transpired with high-flying Bristol. Whereas their victory last Saturday over Saracens was low key with minimal moments of out-of-your-seat action, the entertainment levels went through the roof at Kingsholm on Friday night with the Bears defeating West Country rivals Gloucester on a 33-24 scoreline.
To the fore in his second appearance for the English club since joining from Bordeaux was Radradra, the box-office Fijian centre scoring a try and making two others during a first-half onslaught which saw Bristol claim four tries in 23 minutes. He also went on to carry for a total of 130 metres.
The club’s communications team have now celebrated this impact on social media, tweeting about a video which “contains content Premiership Rugby defences may find disturbing”.
Bristol boss Pat Lam and Gloucester coach George Skivington were both in admiration of Radradra’s display. Skivington said: “He is pretty special, isn’t he? There were two or three showings of what he’s made of. He is an outstanding player.”