Gallagher Premiership
Bristol (19) 36
Tries: Ibitoye, Lane, Oghre, Harding, Capon, Mata Cons: MacGinty 3
Bath (7) 14
Tries: Donoghue, Richards Cons: Donoghue 2
Bristol overcame their own ill-discipline and much-changed league leaders Bath to claim a 36-14 victory in a Premiership showpiece match at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium.
Ciaran Donoghue opened the scoring for Bath but a trio of tries from Gabriel Ibitoye, Rich Lane and Gabriel Oghre gave the Bears a 19-7 lead at the break despite two yellow cards.
Fitz Harding added Bristol’s fourth try after the break before Ewan Richards pulled one back as the Bears were reduced to 13 men for a second time.
Yet, Will Capon and Viliame Mata’s flourish in the closing minutes capped a victory against the table-toppers that moves Bristol above Sale to third in the table, by three points, with two matches of the season remaining.
Branded the ‘Big Day Out’, the match saw Bristol swap Ashton Gate for Wales’ flagship international stadium with 51,095 tickets sold just under twice the capacity of their 27,000 home ground.
With Bath already having cemented a home semi-final in the play-offs, head coach Johann van Graan fielded a fledgling team who will feel nonetheless disappointed to have come away with nothing.
Bristol failed to convert three early visits to Bath’s 22 into points, only to rapidly be reduced to 13 men.
Max Lahiff was first to be shown yellow for repeated infringements as Bath’s forwards pushed for a try that was twice held up.
Joe Cokanasiga reacted fastest to a charged-down kick, bursting forward and passing to Donoghue to make it 7-0 to Bath, before Benhard Janse van Rensburg was also sent to the bin for tackling Richards in the air.
Bristol impressively survived the numerical disadvantage and, back at full tilt and at their fifth time of asking in Bath’s red zone, Ibitoye scored his 11th Premiership try of the campaign to shift the momentum.
Janse van Rensburg then fed Lane to cross in the corner and Oghre added their third before half-time from a driving maul to open a 12-point advantage.
Ibitoye drifted through Bath’s line and Harding stretched over for the bonus-point score quickly after half-time, but Bath were far from down and out.
Replacement Will Jeanes on his league debut – thought he had scored only for the try to be chalked off for a forward pass, while James Williams made a try-saving tackle to deny Austin Emens.
Richards then impressively closed the gap, throwing a dummy and ghosting behind two tacklers to dive under the posts.
Bristol’s indiscipline again almost cost them as Joe Batley on his first appearance since November due to injury was sent to the bin, quickly followed by Mata, reducing them again to 13.
Their defence held firm to hold Bath at bay during a crucial 12 minutes and with the clock running down they sealed the win in style.
Capon scored in a move that went from one end of the pitch to the other before Mata darted down the wing and dived over to help keep Bristol firmly in the play-off race.
Bristol: Lane; Ravouvou, Janse van Rensburg, Williams, Ibitoye; MacGinty, Randall; Genge, Oghre, Lahiff; Caulfield, Batley, Luatua, Harding (c), Mata.
Replacements: Capon, Y Thomas, Kloska, Dun, Owen, Marmion, Naulago, S Grondona.
Sin-bin: Lahiff (13 mins), Van Rensburg (18 mins), Batley (59 mins), Mata (61 mins)
Bath: De Glanville; Cokanasiga, Hennessey, Bailey, Emens; Donoghue, Shreuder; Van Wyk, Spandler, Griffin; Richards (c), Molony, Bayliss, Staddon, Green.
Replacements: Tuipulotu, Cordwell, Verden, Jeanes, Cowan, Carr-Smith, McConnochie, Reid.
Referee: Luke Pearce
