REPORT: Bristol Rugby 10 - 32 Northampton Saints

Ross McMillan crossed for Bristol's only try of the afternoon early in the second-half, but scores from Ken Pisi, Louis Picamoles, George North and Mikey Haywood - together with 10 points from the boot of Stephen Myler - sealed victory for the visitors. 

Northampton opened the scoring courtesy of a Stephen Myler penalty after two minutes - and the first try of the afternoon wasn’t long in coming, with George North scything through the Bristol defence after a period of sustained pressure in the hosts’ twenty-two.

Myler’s conversion drifted wide, but Bristol fly-half Tusi Pisi was soon on target at the other end, knocking over a 25 metre penalty to make the score 3-8.

Saints hit back almost immediately, as number eight Louis Picamoles crashed over at the back of a driving maul on 18 minutes, with Myler adding the extras.

The visitors crossed for their third try of the first-half on 22 minutes when Ken Pisi collected Myler’s cross-field kick to touch down in the right-hand corner – and the fly-half made no mistake with the touchline conversion.

Bristol began to gain a foothold on the half-hour mark, with first Pisi and then Tonga’uiha making half breaks – but Saints cleared their lines and a handling error in the Bristol half brought the half to a close with the score 3-25.

After the interval, Bristol began positively and a slick handling move down the left-hand side saw Soane Tonga’uiha put Tom Varndell in the clear - but the winger was dragged down by the covering Ahsee Tuala just five metres from the try line.

On 51 minutes, hooker Ross McMillan went one better for the home side, bundling his way over from close range for Bristol’s first try of the afternoon, after Mosses' line break in the Saints 22.

Pisi added the extras from under the posts to close the gap to 10-25 - but that was to be Bristol’s final points of the afternoon and Saints had the final say with a Mikey Haywood try two minutes from time.

Replacement Harry Mallinder fired the touchline conversion through the middle of the posts to cap a bonus-point win for the visitors.

Teams:

Bristol Rugby: Jack Wallace; Ryan Edwards, Will Hurrell, Ben Mosses (Jarvis 72), Tom Varndell; Tusi Pisi, Will Cliff (Williams 68); Soane Tonga’uiha (Traynor 61), Ross McMillan (Brooker 64), Gaston Cortes (Perenise 64), Ian Evans (Phillips 55), Ben Glynn, Jon Fisher (Eadie 53), Jack Lam (c), Jordan Crane (Robinson 64). 

Replacements: Chris Brooker, Kyle Traynor, Anthony Perenise, James Phillips, Olly Robinson, Mitch Eadie, Rhodri Williams, Adrian Jarvis.

Northampton Saints: Ahsee Tuala, Ken Pisi, George Pisi (Mallinder 47), Luther Burrell, George North, Stephen Myler, Lee Dickson (Groom 46); Alex Waller (Ma’afu 70), Dylan Hartley (Haywood 40), Kieran Brookes (Hill 65), Courtney Lawes, Michael Paterson, Tom Wood (capt), Teimana Harrison (Gibson 76), Louis Picamoles.

Replacements: Mikey Haywood, Campese Ma’afu, Paul Hill, Sam Dickinson, Jamie Gibson, Nic Groom, Harry Mallinder, Ben Foden.

Referee: Craig Maxwell-Keys

Attendance: 11,322