With the clock ticking on an arm wrestle of a match in the Italian mud, the elusive scrum-half spotted a rare gap in the home defence and darted under the posts.

Fly-half Callum Sheedy kicked the simple conversion and immediately referee Thomas Charabas blew for time.

That conversion stretched Bristol’s unbeaten sequence in this year’s tournament to six matches, but until Randall’s late intervention it looked as though the Pool 4 winners would surrender that record.

No.8 Jimmy Tuivati had given Zebre the lead with a 37th minute try that was converted by fly-half Carlo Canna and with it hope of a late dash to the quarter-finals, especially as Sheedy was yellow-carded immediately afterwards.

However, Bristol held out and in the end it was the 63rd minute red card for Zebre flanker Johan Meyer that proved crucial as the Italian side just ran out of numbers in defence with the Bears’ late attack.

📸| The points are shared in an attritional affair 👀

Thanks to @ZebreRugby for your hospitality 🤝

Images 👉 https://t.co/rzbM3z5t2b pic.twitter.com/MwMcnggq61

— Bristol Bears (@BristolBears) January 18, 2020