Northampton Saints scored six tries at Ashton Gate but suffered last-minute heartbreak as Gabriel Ibitoye crossed to inflict a single-point Premiership Rugby Cup defeat.
A high-scoring and entertaining first-half saw the sides go in at the break all square with Saints registering a bonus point through two Tommy Freeman tries and one each for Tom Seabrook and George Hendy. Bristol kept themselves level through Harry Thacker, Josh Caulfield and Jack Bates tries and nine points from AJ MacGinty’s boot.
James Ramm and Toby Thame added second-half tries for Phil Dowson’s side with a Sheedy penalty and Kieran Marmion's five-pointer setting up a grandstand finish that went the way of the hosts with the game’s final play.
FIRST HALF:
Saints flew out of the blocks first, attacking from the kick-off but coming up just short on their first forray. Sustained pressure eventually paid dividends for the away team though as space opened up out wide and the ball headed through Fraser Dingwall and Freeman before Seabrook dived over brilliantly in the corner.
Bristol hit back instantly though, with Thacker pouncing on loose ball at the restart and opening Bears’ account out wide.
MacGinty added the conversion to put Bristol ahead and the home side extended their lead further as Caulfield shot through a gap in Saints’ line and over the whitewash, with MacGinty adding another two points to Bears’ tally.
Northampton got back on the front foot though, crossing the line twice in quick succession, first as a gap opened up out wide for Hendy to finish and then through Freeman – as the winger got on the end of Tom James’ grubber behind Bristol's defence to score in the corner.
MacGinty levelled the scores again, sending a penalty over after Saints were penalised for not rolling away at the breakdown. And it was the home side who scored next, with Bates muscling his way over on the half-hour mark and MacGinty adding the extras from the tee.
Saints tied up the scores again quickly as Hendy charged free on the halfway line; the fullback had James and Freeman on his shoulders, with a tidy one-two seeing the latter dot down under the posts and Smith’s conversion sending the teams into the changing rooms with 24 points each.
SECOND HALF:
Saints fired three early shots from the restart, with Freeman, Seabrook and then Hendy all getting close to the goalline in the opening minutes of the second half. But it took until the 57th minute for the scoring deadlock to break; despite sustained pressure from Saints in Bristol’s half, the home side came away from their first attack into Saints’ 22 with three points from Sheedy’s boot.
But that pressure from Saints’ attack eventually paid off, with Ramm slicing through Bristol’s line to score under the posts.
Furbank’s conversion put Saints’ 31-27 ahead after an hour and though Bristol momentarily took the lead as they sent Marmion over the whitewash, Thame danced through to score his third try in as many weeks.
But with just a minute left on the clock, Bristol snatched the victory – building the phases in Saints’ 22 before shipping the ball out to Ibitoye to dot down out wide.
LINE-UPS:
BRISTOL: 15 Lane, 14 Bates, 13 Janse van Rensburg, 12 Williams, 11 Ibitoye, 10 MacGinty, 9 Randall (c); 1 Woolmore, 2 Thacker, 3 Lahiff, 4 Caulfield, 5 Holmes, 6 Batley, 7 Thomas, 8 Bradbury.
Replacements: 16 Capon, 17 Turner, 18 Kloska, 19 Dun, 20 Heenan, 21 Marmion, 22 Sheedy, 23 Jenkins
SAINTS: 15 Hendy, 14 Freeman, 13 Dingwall (c), 12 Thame, 11 Seabrook, 10 F Smith, 9 James; 1 E Waller, 2 Langdon, 3 Davison, 4 Moon, 5 Lockett, 6 Coles, 7 Scott-Young, 8 Graham.
Replacements: 16 R Smith, 17 Iyogun, 18 Millar Mills, 19 Atuanya, 20 Augustus, 21 McParland, 22 Furbank, 23 Ramm.
