Bath do not lose often these days, never mind on successive league weekends. And with an injury-hit Bristol supposedly cast in the role of punchbags this fixture was widely viewed as a home banker. Sure enough the defending champions eventually pulled away but only at the final whistle could this feisty, incident-packed West Country derby be classed as wholly comfortable.
It was fractious and visceral enough at times to make next Saturday’s England game against Australia look like a quiet suburban church fete. The England management will be suitably relieved that Ellis Genge, Ollie Lawrence, Guy Pepper and others walked away largely intact but they will all report back to Bagshot feeling distinctly battered and bruised.
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Victory was still up for grabs early in the final quarter before Finn Russell’s neat chip gave big Joe Cokanasiga the chance to collect Bath’s fourth try of a lively afternoon. The weather fluctuated even more wildly, lurching from golden autumn sunshine to rain-soaked tempest and back during the course of an absorbing 80 minutes.
There was even the rare sight of two brothers, in this case Bristol’s Grondona siblings, ending up in the sin-bin, with Bristol’s head coach, Pat Lam, complaining that his full-back Benjamin Elizalde had been provoked by Lawrence throwing a ball at his head. The Bears ended up conceding 20 penalties but Bath’s director of rugby, Johann van Graan, thought the visitors could have been penalised even more harshly. “I felt they were lucky not to concede multiple yellow cards because they were so negative on their own try-line,” said Van Graan, adding that it had been “a fiery game”.
Henry Slade staked a strong claim for inclusion in England’s team to face Australia next weekend with a superb all-round display as Exeter eased to a third win of the season by beating struggling Gloucester 39-12 at Sandy Park.
The centre Slade racked up another 22 points to add to the 23 he scored in the home win over Harlequins six days before, including another two tries.
Exeter attack coach Dave Walder said afterwards: "He has been fantastic since I have come to the club, he has been fantastic here for a long time, watching him from afar, he is great to work with, and it is nice to see him enjoying his rugby with the way he is playing.
"He is getting plenty of positive touches, and having other people around him who can maybe take the load off him and create moments of magic across the back line, it is very exciting for us."
Slade had ignited the contest with the conversion of hooker Joseph Dweba’s catch-and-drive try after only five minutes, but Gloucester responded with an early contender for try of the season only three minutes later.
Jack Cotgreave gathered the ball just outside his own 22 and went off an excellent run before feeding British and Irish Lions scrum-half Tomos Williams, who put Will Joseph over for an excellent score, improved by Ross Byrne.
Exeter, though, then scored two tries in four minutes. Slade and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso put the Chiefs on top again before Freddie Thomas restored hope for the visitors.
The second half was a complete opposite to the opening 40 minutes, with a feast of rugby replaced by a very messy war of attrition. But it was Rob Baxter's side who proved the more composed, adding further tries through Slade and Jack Yeandle to claim a bonus point. The win leaves Exeter in third place.
Man-of-the-match Adam Radwan dropped a broad hint to Steve Borthwick with two tries as Leicester held off a second-half fightback from Sale to claim a nailbiting 36-35 victory at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.
The prolific Tigers wing showed his finishing ability once again to take his tally to 14 tries in 14 league appearances for Leicester since moving from Newcastle last season. Radwan, 27, who won the last of his two England caps in 2021, trained with the national squad last week and is pushing hard for inclusion. Sale, crushed 65-14 by Saracens last weekend, put up much more of a fight and with Luke James grabbing a second half hat-trick, pushed the Tigers all the way but they had to settle for two bonus points at the end of a 10-try thriller. PA Media
Regardless of the conditions and the absence of several key gladiators, Bristol were always going to be up for it. Their mood was nicely summed up before kick-off by Ellis Genge who suggested on TNT Sport that, for him, this inter-city argument felt like “a battle of classes” and “more than a game.” A timely message there, maybe, for those in Wales currently looking to combine the Scarlets and the Ospreys into one regional entity.
Across the Severn Bridge they prefer to keep traditional rivalries festering. Bristol were simply sensational in winning this corresponding fixture a year ago and were also fuelled by their semi-final defeat on the same ground in June. Less than a minute had elapsed when Russell had a kick charged down by an onrushing Benhard Janse van Rensburg and the Bears subsequently worked Kalaveti Ravouvou over in the left corner.
Bristol also stood impressively firm on their own line in the face of a prolonged Bath assault which momentarily appeared to have been denied. Russell had other ideas, feeding Cokanasiga with a deft short ball and another lovely offload from Miles Reid gave Pepper the chance to swerve his way to the line. The England squad flanker finished with the kind of extravagant swallow dive that will have felt less good than it looked.
It was the cue for the conditions to alter spectacularly. A violent squall suddenly shattered the mild autumnal calm and Bath’s attempted clearance kicks started to boomerang back over their own heads. The Bears saw their chance and, via a cleverly disguised move involving Kieran Marmion at the front of a lineout, scored a second try through Gabriel Oghre.
Bath, though, were back ahead before the interval in a game that was rising to the boil in every respect. There were several mass scuffles, the first costing Bath a penalty when Reid shoved Fitz Harding to the floor and the second going against Bristol after Lawrence had scored at the clubhouse end.
There was barely a dull moment even after Cam Redpath, omitted from Scotland’s autumn squad, added a third try for Bath in the left corner. Bath had two further touchdowns ruled out in the third quarter for tiny knock-ons in the buildup and, with the sun now out again, the hosts still only led 19-15.
Lawrence, one of those denied, also wasted another glaring opportunity when he threw a theoretically routine pass to nobody in particular. Despite the loss of Santiago Grondona to the sin-bin with the visiting penalty count soaring, the Bears somehow weathered the siege until the 64th minute, when Cokanasiga thundered over in the right corner to clinch a bonus point. To Bath the spoils, topped off with further late tries for Sam Underhill and Henry Arundell, but not without a proper fight.
Bath Carreras; Cokanasiga, Lawrence, Redpath (Ojomoh 69), Arundell; Russell, Spencer (capt; Carr-Smith 73 ); Obano (Van Wyk 61); Dunn (Tuipulotu 61), Du Toit (Stuart 61), Roux (Richards 61), Molony, Bayliss, Pepper (Underhill 61), Reid (Barbeary 61)Tries Pepper, Lawrence, Redpath, Cokanasiga, Underhill, Arundell Cons Russell 5Sin-bin Van Wyk 80Bristol Bears Elizalde (Carrington 65); Bates, Moroni, Janse van Rensburg, Ravouvou (Fricker 80); Worsley, Marmion (Lennon, 73);Genge (Woolmore 58),Oghre (Thacker 58), Kloska (Chawatama 46), Rubiolo, Batley, S Grondona (Owen, 69), Harding (capt), Mata (B Grondona 69)Tries: Ravouvou, Oghre Con Worsley Pen WorsleySin-bin S Grondona 59, B Grondona 80Referee Ian Tempest (RFU) Att 14,509