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 lost at home to Gloucester and only last January they beat Bath 57-44 at Ashton Gate. This cracking game was not quite such a crazy whirl but at times the scoreboard was still revolving like a fruit machine in Las Vegas.

And when the music stopped and all the 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 try bonus point in the bag before half-time, two of them from Argentinian 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 hooker Gabriel Oghre enjoying a fine game and Benhard Janse van Rensburg once again influential. It was another lovely day, too, a mellow sun adding an extra lustre to the glorious setting. Some of the facilities at the Rec 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 looking to give the paying public some value for their heftily-priced tickets.

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

Bath did manage 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 again in the opposing 22 and a clearly-motivated Grondona claimed his second try.

Bath 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 already ahead 29-7.

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

Suddenly the Bears needed to regroup and a yellow card for Sam Underhill within six minutes of the England flanker coming off the replacements’ bench tilted the momentum again. The outstanding Oghre has just been omitted from England’s first training squad of the season but he was in electric form here and fully deserved to get on the scoresheet at the bottom of a driving maul.

Ollie Lawrence did claim a try bonus point for Bath but there could be no denying Bristol’s overall superiority or their 10-point victory margin. The Bears have three tricky looking upcoming games this month against Exeter, Saracens and Northampton but, on this form, nothing is impossible.