Bristol Bears' ambitions of climbing the table into the Champions Cup spots was given a boost with a 15-13 victory over Bath Rugby at the Recreation Ground on Friday night in a game full of errors and inaccuracy but drama in equal measure.
It was only Bristol’s second away win in their last 15 trips but it maintained their recent impressive run against Bath after they beat them for the seventh time in eight outings to leave the Blue, Black and White rooted to the foot of the table.
READ MORE: Bath Rugby 13-15 Bristol Bears LIVE: Reaction and highlights from derby clash
Bristol scored two tries to one with Siva Naulago and James Williams both crossing after injection from on both occasions from man of the mach Semi Radradra, with AJ MacGinty kicking a penalty and a conversion.
Miles Reid scored Bath’s try with Piers Francis adding two penalties and a conversion but crucially the home fly-half missed with three kicks at goal which ultimately proved decisive.
Bristol conceded three early penalties and from the third, Francis had the chance to give his side the lead but his kick from 50 metres fell short.
The first half was full of errors, with Francis missing twice from the tee - first short and then wide, but the game's opening score was top-class.
Semi Radradra took the ball flat on the gain line straight from Harry Randall at the base of a ruck, he dissected Dave Attwood and D'Arcy Rae with a spin and offloaded to James Williams who managed to reach out to score his first Premiership try.
But the hosts, whose line out creaked in the early stages, hit back after sustained pressure in the Bristol 22 which concluded with Miles Reid powering his way over the line with a couple of latching teammates adding some additional muscle.
Bath were hugely fortunate to avoid conceding a try just before half time as the officiating team led by referee Matthew Carley botched a review of a score by Harry Thacker.
Francis had a clearing kick charged down and Siva Naulago fought for the bouncing ball with Ben Spencer, replays show the Fijian clearly knocked the ball backwards after two attempts to grab the ball, Thacker picked up and sped in under the posts. But the officials judged the ball went forward in the build-up.
Moments later Williams was very harshly judged to have blocked a Bath kick chaser to concede a penalty which Francis landed from 35m out to take the lead for the first time.
The hosts lost Cokanasiga at half-time to an injury and within two minutes of the restart they suffered another blow when Bristol regained the lead.
A clean break from MacGinty put the defence on the back foot and when the ball was recycled, Naulago stepped in to out to fool Matt Gallagher before touching down in the corner.
Bath’s woes continued when full-back Tom de Glanville left the field for an HIA but their spirits were restored when first MacGinty was yellow-carded before Francis kicked the resulting penalty.
De Glanville and MacGinty both returned and it was the Bristol fly-half who put Bears back in front with a simple penalty with 14 minutes remaining before Francis crucially missed with a 35-metre kick to give Bristol the points.
Bath Rugby: 15 Tom de Glanville, 14 Joe Cokanasiga, 13 Cameron Redpath, 12 Max Ojomoh, 11 Matt Gallagher, 10 Piers Francis, 9 Ben Spencer ©; 1 Beno Obano, 2 Niall Annett, 3 D’Arcy Rae, 4 Dave Attwood, 5 Quinn Roux, 6 Josh Bayliss, 7 Sam Underhill, 8 Miles Reid
Replacements: 16 Tom Dunn, 17 Juan Schoeman, 18 Will Stuart, 19 GJ van Velze, 20 Jaco Coetzee, 21 Louis Schreuder, 22 Orlando Bailey, 23 Chris Cloete.
Bristol Bear: 15. Charles Piutau, 14. Siva Naulago, 13. Semi Radradra, 12. James Williams, 11. Gabriel Ibitoye, 10. AJ MacGinty, 9. Harry Randall (c); 1. Yann Thomas, 2. Harry Thacker, 3. Max Lahiff, 4. Joe Joyce, 5. Chris Vui, 6. Sam Jeffries, 7. Fitz Harding, 8. Magnus Bradbury
Replacements: 16. Bryan Byrne (41 apps), 17. Jake Woolmore (126 apps), 18. George Kloska (21 apps), 19. Jake Heenan (87 apps), 20. Sam Lewis (8 apps), 21. Andy Uren (152 apps), 22. Sam Bedlow (58 apps), 23. Ioan Lloyd (72 apps).
Referee: Matthew Carley
Assistant Referees : Ian Tempest and Gareth Holsgrove.
TMO: Rowan Kitt.
Citing Officer : Chris Sharp.
Attendance: 14509
