Bath blow Bristol out of the water
Nick Abendanon scored a hat-trick of tries as Bath booked a spot in the semi-finals of the European Challenge Cup by notching up an impressive 51-12 victory over their Bristol in a lop-sided West Country duel at the Rec on Saturday.
Behind at half-time, the hosts cut loose to score seven second-half tries.
The win also denied Bristol a ‘double double’ after their three victories earlier in the season.
With the campaign almost over, Bath may now have found their most consistent line-up.
Head coach Steve Meehan made four changes from the side that lost narrowly at Leicester a fortnight ago, Shaun Berne replacing Chev Walker at centre and Tom Cheeseman coming in for David Bory on the left wing. Michael Lipman and Andy Beattie also came in to fill the flanker positions.
More significant was the decision to leave England reserve hooker Lee Mears on the bench.
Bristol were forced into five changes from the side that defeated Northampton only six days earlier, with hooker Mark Regan, suffering an ear infection, denied a chance to face his old club.
Olly Barkley had a chance to open the scoring after just three minutes but was wide with his 35-metre penalty attempt.
For the next 10 minutes the home side did not see much of the ball as Bristol went through the phases, looking dangerous until Shaun Perry spilled the ball at a ruck. Half-back partner Danny Gray was also wide with his first attempt at goal into a blustery wind but Bristol kept up the pressure.
Abendanon had just returned from treatment for a blood injury when Bath nicked a Bristol line-out to create an excellent try for the youngster who sidestepped his opposite number Josh Taumalolo. Barkley added the conversion and Bath were 7-0 ahead after 13 minutes.
Abendanon was busy at the other end, too, pulling off a try-saving tackle on Joe El Abd. He could do nothing though when Lee Robinson maintained his remarkable scoring record against Bath, touching down from an overlap on 20 minutes.
Left-wing David Lemi added a second try almost immediately after Robinson carved through the Bath defence on a diagonal run, Gray this time adding the conversion to put Bristol 12-7 ahead.
Barkley knocked over a 50-metre effort on half-time to leave Bath three points adrift.
Bristol came out for the second half without either Perry or hooker Scott Linklater and soon had to replace Lemi as well and their teamwork suffered, especially in defence.
Bath wasted no time in taking advantage, running in four tries in the space of 13 minutes through Joe Maddock, Cheeseman and Berne (two).
Abendanon capped a man-of-the-match performance with two tries, his hat-trick effort a remarkable example of counter-attacking ability. Bath rounded things off in the final minute when replacement Bory scored under the posts after the Bristol defence had been spread-eagled again.
The scorers:
For Bath:
Tries: Abendanon 3, Maddock, Cheeseman, Berne 2, Bory
Cons: Barkley 2, Malone, Berne
Pen: Barkley
For Bristol:
Tries: Robinson, Lemi
Con: Gray
Bath: 15 Nick Abendanon, 14 Joe Maddock, 13 Shaun Berne, 12 Olly Barkley, 11 Tom Cheeseman, 10 Chris Malone, 9 Nick Walshe, 8 Isaac Feaunati, 7 Michael Lipman, 6 Andy Beattie, 5 Danny Grewcock, 4 Steve Borthwick (c), 3 Matt Stevens, 2 Pieter Dixon, 1 David Barnes.
Replacements: 16 Lee Mears, 17 Aaron Jarvis, 18 Peter Short, 19 Jonny Faamatuainu, 20 Andy Williams, 21 David Bory, 22 Chev Walker.
Bristol: 15 Josh Taumalolo, 14 Lee Robinson, 13 Neil Brew, 12 Sam Cox, 11 David Lemi, 10 Danny Gray, 9 Shaun Perry, 8 Andrew Blowers, 7 Joe El Abd, 6 Roy Winters, 5 Gareth Llewellyn (c), 4 Mariano Sambucetti, 3 Darren Crompton, 2 Mark Regan, 1 Dave Hilton.
Replacements: 16 David Blaney, 17 Alex Clarke, 18 Nathan Budgett, 19 Craig Short, 20 Greg Nicholls, 21 Jason Strange, 22 Luke Arscott.
Referee: Donal Courtney (Ireland)
Touch judges: George Clancy (Ireland), Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland)
Assessor: Joel Dume (France)
Television match official: Brian Abrahams (England), Marshall Kilgore (Ireland)
