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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 at no point could a feisty, incident-packed West Country derby be classed as 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 all will report back to Bagshot feeling distinctly battered and bruised.
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.
Regardless of the conditions and the absence of several key gladiators, however, Bristol were always going to be for it. Their mood was nicely summed up before kick-off by Genge, who suggested on TNT Sport that, for him, this inter-city argument felt like “a battle of classes” and “more than a game”. There was a timely message there, maybe, for those in Wales currently seeking 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 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.
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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 buildups and, with the sun now out again, the hosts still led only 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.
