Santiago Grondona’s debut double leads Bristol to blistering win over Bath

The days of low-scoring West Country derbies have gone the way of cassette tapes and Ceefax. A week ago, Bristol scored 41 points and still contrived to lose at home to Gloucester and last January they beat Bath 57-44 at Ashton Gate. This cracking game was not quite the same crazy whirl but the scoreboard still revolved at times like a fruit machine in Las Vegas.

When the music stopped and the nine tries were finally collated it added up to another hugely satisfying away day for Bristol, rewarding a consistently vibrant performance full of movement and purpose.

The Bears, who led 26-7 at the interval, had a four-try bonus point in the bag before half-time, two of them to their Argentina back-rower Santiago Grondona on his long-awaited league debut for the club, and were good value for their five-try success.

Bristol’s massive attack is certainly a joy to watch when it clicks, with their hooker, Gabriel Oghre, enjoying a fine game and Benhard Janse van Rensburg once again influential. They weathered the early loss of centre James Williams with a shoulder injury and have won their past seven Premiership away games on the trot.

“You don’t lose to these guys, it means a lot to us,” said Bristol’s director of rugby, Pat Lam, whose side have an excellent recent record here. “If you can beat these guys you enjoy the whole year. It’s probably one of the easiest games to prepare for. I don’t need to worry about motivation.”

It was also a beautiful day to watch rugby with a mellow sun adding an extra lustre to the glorious setting. Some of the Rec’s facilities have barely changed since the Romans were in situ but as atmospheric sporting venues go it remains right up there. Particularly on days like this when both sides are seeking to give the paying public some value for their heftily priced tickets.

The Bears continue to believe in positive-minded rugby as the best way forward and had three tries banked inside the first 26 minutes. Max Malins, in a rich vein of scoring form, was over in the left corner after 90 seconds and the fit-again Grondona and Janse van Rensburg also forced their way over to put their side 19-7 ahead.

Previously unbeaten Bath did find a lovely solo score from Sam Harris, blasting through an attempted tackle by Gabriel Ibitoye, but Bristol looked the sharper, more urgent team. Sure enough, with advantage being played, they were clinical once more in the opposing 22 and a clearly motivated Grondona claimed his second try.

The hosts were simply not hitting as hard in the tackle as their coaches would have wanted, a surprise given their encouraging start to the season. With Alfie Barbeary, on his 24th birthday, sitting in the stands they lacked punch and energy and only started to emerge from their lethargy with Bristol 29-7 ahead.

Bath also endured a measure of misfortune with Ted Hill and Guy Pepper believing they had scored tries that ended up being ruled out by the television match official for small knock-ons. The sending of Grondona to the sin-bin, though, gave them a foothold and rat-a-tat tries from Will Butt and Ross Molony, after a smart break from Finn Russell, breathed fresh life into the contest.

The question was whether the Bears could finish as they started and a yellow card for Sam Underhill within six minutes of the England flanker coming off the replacements’ bench did the visitors’ cause no harm. The outstanding Oghre has just been omitted from England’s first training squad of the autumn, but he was in electric form here and fully deserved to get on the scoresheet at the bottom of a driving maul.

While Ollie Lawrence did claim a try bonus point for Bath there could be no denying Bristol’s overall superiority, raucously celebrated with a post-match team sing-song on the pitch. The Bears have three tricky looking games this month against Exeter, Saracens and Northampton but, on this form, nothing will feel impossible.