Report: Bristol Bears 61-19 Bath Rugby

A blistering first half saw Pat Lam's side storm into a 40-7 lead in front of another bumper crowd in BS3, with the bonus point wrapped up inside 20 minutes.

Rich Lane opened the scoring with his try in Bears colours and Jack Bates doubled the advantage shortly after, slaloming his way through the Bath defence to touch down under the posts.

Bryan Byrne powered over from a well-worked driving lineout and when Niyi Adeolokun added a quick-fire double before the half-hour mark, the Bears had opened up a 35-0 lead over their near neighbours. 

Dave Attwood grabbed a sixth try of the half on 35 minutes, before Mackenzie Graham got Bath on the board on the stroke of half time.

Joe Simpson and Tom Prydie touched down early in the second period to hint at a Bath fightback, but George Kloska's close-range effort put the Bears out of reach, with Mitch Eadie and Piers O'Conor adding the gloss to a record scoreline against Bath.

Bristol Bears: Tries: Lane 5, Bates 12, Byrne 18, Adeolokun 21, 29, Attwood 35, Kloska 62, Eadie 69, O’Conor 76. Cons: Eden 5, 12, 18, 21, 29, 62, J Lloyd 76

Bath Rugby: Tries: Graham 40, Simpson 47, Prydie 54. Cons: Bailey 40, 54

Bristol Bears: Lane (J Lloyd 67), Adeolokun, Bates, O’Conor, Jones (Rowson 57), Eden, Strang; Challenger (Sims 48), Byrne (Capon 53), Armstrong (Kloska 40), Attwood (Dun 48), Holmes, Hawkins (c) (Taylor 69), D Thomas, Eadie. Replacements: Capon, Sims, Kloska, Dun, Duncan, Taylor, J Lloyd, Rowson.

Bath: Atkins, Prydie, Ojomah, Venter, Hamer-Webb, Bailey (c), Simpson; Boyce, Doughty, Fia, Spencer, Dingley, Graham, De Carpentier, Merigan. Replacements: Du Toit, Cordwell, Verden, Morozov, Casson, Fox, Worboys, Butt.