Aviva Premiership

Bristol 10 Northampton Saints 32

BRISTOL were beaten by the first-half dominance of Northampton Saints as the former Aviva Premiership champions secured a bonus point victory at Ashton Gate on Sunday.

The home side were hit by first-half tries by wing George North, number eight Louis Picamoles and wing Ken Pisi with fly-half Stephen Myler bootking two penalites and two conversions before they grabbed the fourth bonus point try late on with replacement hooker Mike Haywood going over.

Bristol managed to get a try from hooker Ross McMillan that fly-half Tusi Pisi converted, adding to his first-half penalty, but it was too little for them.

From the first whistle, it did not start well for Bristol as they were starved of possession and were unable to get out of their own half for the first ten minutes.

By that time, Northampton had gone 8-0 up and it looked ominus for the home side on their Premiership debut at Ashton Gate.

The Saints began the wearing down process early up as they pounded the Bristol midfield and were rewarded when Myler landed a 28-metre penalty to open the scoring before Welsh wing George North raced through a massive gap in the defence to race over for an unconverted try.

Fly-half Tusi Pisi hit back for Bristol when they were awarded a penalty thirty metres out when Northampton were accused of not releasing at a ruck but the defiance was temporary as the Saints rumbled to another try when number eight Louis Picamoles was awarded the touch down under a pile of bodies by the television match official.

Myler converted and added another penalty by which time Bristol were way on the back foot at 18-3 in arrears.

And it looked even more problematic for the home side, as director of rugby Andy Robinson looked on high up in the new Lansdown Stand, when wing Ken Pisi was put away on the left wing although a chorus of boos rang out around the ground when the big screen replay showed the wing may have been in touch.

Myler converted but Bristol tried to counter and had a first drive of the match on the Northampton line but were unable to cross.

The Saints nearly went over again five minutes before the break but the TMO ruled they had knocked on going over the line. As much as they fought well against Quins, Northampton were teaching them, in one half, the harsh realities of Premiership rugby against those gunning for the title and Robinson needed some good words of wisdom as they went into the break to avoid a mauling.

Whatever Robinson said worked as Bristol found another gear and managed to gain more possession and territory after the break, resulting in a well-worked converted try when McMillan went over from a metre under the sticks.

Pisi converted and more pressure nearly gave Bristol more returns as they aggressively went for a try rather than a kickable penalty but could not convert that into points.

Bristol began to turn it on, and had a couple of other kickable penalties that they went for attacking line-outs. They were determined to get at least a losing bonus point.

As the clock ticked down, though, the likelihood of Bristol coming out of the game with nothing other than pride was becoming more of a probability than not.

Northampton refused a straight forward penalty as they went for a bonus point try and they thought they had it went skipper Tom Wood drove over only for the move to be called back for a Bristol scrum.

Haywood went over in the left corner for a try which replacement Harry Mallinder converted to seal their win.