Bristol Bears

Bristol Bears
Full name	Bristol Rugby Club
Union	Somerset Rugby Football Union
Nickname(s)	Bears, Bris
Founded	1888
Location	Bristol, England
Ground(s)	Ashton Gate Stadium (Capacity: 27,000)
Chairman	Chris Booy
Director of Rugby	Pat Lam
Captain(s)	Fitz Harding
Most appearances	Darren Crompton (138)
Top scorer	Felipe Contepomi (573)
Most tries	Harry Thacker (35)
League(s)	Premiership Rugby
2023–24	5th
1st kit	2nd kit
Official website
	www.bristolbearsrugby.com
	Current season

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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.

The club was founded as Bristol Football Club in 1888; between 1921 and 2014, home matches were played at the Memorial Ground, and have since been played at Ashton Gate Stadium in the south-west of the city. The current head coach Pat Lam was appointed in 2017. In the 2023–24 season Bristol finished 5th entitling them to compete in the 2024-25 European Rugby Champions Cup.

In 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.

^ "Bristol Rugby to rebrand as Bristol Bears ahead of Gallagher Premiership Rugby return". The Daily Telegraph. 16 April 2018. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2018.

[1] "Bristol Rugby to rebrand as Bristol Bears ahead of Gallagher Premiership Rugby return". The Daily Telegraph. 16 April 2018. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2018.

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