Bristol keep season alive with tense win over Bath

The Prem

Bristol (7) 21

Tries: Harding, penalty try, Lahiff Cons: MacGinty, Jordan

Bath (19) 19

Tries: Lawrence, Pepper, Du Toit Cons: Donoghue 2

Bristol dug deep to beat reigning Prem champions Bath 21-19 and keep alive their chances of gatecrashing the play-off places.

After losing 94-33 at leaders Northampton two weeks ago, the Bears climbed off the canvas to put in a much more diligent performance to ease the pressure on boss Pat Lam and delight a packed Ashton Gate.

Without injured playmaker Finn Russell, Bath were not at their fluent best and did not score a point in the second half as the hosts ground out a vital win in the penultimate game of the league season.

Bristol head to Sale next weekend after closing the gap on fourth-placed Exeter to a point, while Bath missed the chance to all-but secure a top-two finish.

After a scrappy, yet high-intensity opening, Bath finally put together 11 phases of pressure and Ollie Lawrence drove over from close range to open the scoring.

Bristol were being starved of the ball and a sloppy turnover led to a second for the visitors, Ben Spencer feeding Guy Pepper to fly into the corner.

Bristol reacted well with captain Fitz Harding finishing after a quick tap penalty but Bath still found time to win a penalty at a scrum which led to prolific prop Thomas du Toit burrowing in to make the score 19-7 at the break.

The hosts needed something - and were handed a penalty try when England wing Henry Arundell was sent to the bin early in the second half for a deliberate knock-on which denied Louis Rees-Zammit a score in the corner.

The rapid Rees-Zammit then almost scored a brilliant solo try to draw Bristol level but could not ground his own clever kick ahead.

Bath, restored to 15, thought they had a bonus-point try through replacement Alfie Barbeary but it was chalked off for a knock-on.

Ted Hill made a superb try-saving tackle to blunt a Bristol attack but Max Lahiff then drove over to put the home side ahead with 13 minutes remaining.

Both sides pushed for another score and Bath full-back Santi Carreras attempted to snatch victory with a stoppage-time penalty from inside his own half, but it drifted wide and Bristol took the win.

Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam to BBC Bristol:

"We gave a better version of us tonight, we have still never lost to Bath here since I have been here.

"The players never give in, they drew on who they really are and they always bounce back. You can lose games on emotion but we channelled it into our jobs.

"Fitz Harding broke his hand in the first five minutes but he played on, Ellis Genge has done his calf, the boys put their bodies on the line. It was special, a massive win."

Bath director of rugby Johann van Graan to BBC Somerset:

"We didn't use all of our opportunities. We had two disallowed tries but that's the game and it came to the last kick of the match.

"Congratulations to them, that's sport. It was a great crowd, two good sets of fans and well done to Bristol.

"From our side if that kick goes over it's a different story, it was a great effort, but we move on.

"We can only run our race and it will come down to the final game. It's brilliant for the Prem. We are at home and we look forward to it."

Bristol: Heward; Ravouvou, Rees-Zammit, Moroni, Van Rensburg; MacGinty, Randall; Genge, Thacker, Kloska; Dun, Batley, Owen, Harding, Grondona.

Replacements: Gwilliam, Woolmore, Lahiff, Halliwell, Taylor, Marmion, Jordan, Bates.

Bath: Carreras; Cokanasiga, Lawrence, Ojomoh, Arundell; Donoghue, Spencer (c); Obana, Tuipulotu, du Toit; Hill, Ewels, Staddon, Underhill, Pepper.

Replacements: Frost, van Wyk, Sela, Richards, Bayliss, Carr-Smith, Redpath, Barbeary.

Sin bin: Arundell (44)

Referee: Karl Dickson