Ravouvou double as Bristol beat Saints to go top
· BBC SportSophie Hurcom at Ashton Gate
BBC Sport England
Gallagher Premiership
Bristol (14) 31
Tries: Ibitoye, Ravouvou 2, Batley Cons: MacGinty 4 Pens: MacGinty
Northampton (18) 23
Tries: Hendy, Kemeny, Ramm Cons: Makepeace-Cubitt Pens: Makepeace-Cubitt 2
Bristol clinched their first home win of the season with a scrappy bonus-point victory against a much-changed Northampton side.
George Hendy and Josh Kemeny helped Saints to a 15-0 lead inside 20 minutes, before Bristol scored two quick tries of their own through Kalaveti Ravouvou and Gabriel Ibitoye to come back into contention.
Ravouvou’s second try on his first start of the season gave the Bears a narrow lead, before Joe Batley added their fourth to take the game away from the visitors 10 minutes from time.
James Ramm scored with 60 seconds on the clock but it came too late for Saints to take anything from the game, as they fell to their sixth consecutive Premiership defeat on the road.
The win is Bristol’s fourth in a row against Northampton and moves them 10 points clear of their opponents to the top of the table before the rest of the weekend fixtures.
Saints were missing many of their international stars, with boss Phil Dowson making 10 changes for the game, yet they still capitalised on an unusually out-of-sorts Bristol for much of the first half.
With Fin Smith among their five England players missing, debutant George Makepeace-Cubitt stepped up to put the first points on the board, kicking a penalty as repeated errors cost Bristol.
Saints rapidly opened up a 15-0 lead, scoring two tries in three minutes. Tom Pearson found Hendy out wide for the first, the full-back cutting inside the last defender to run over.
Seconds later the Bears handed possession to Saints again. Pearson charged through Kieran Marmion which resulted in a two-on-one out wide, giving Kemeny an easy finish.
Bristol eventually got on the scoreboard as the 30-minute mark approached, spreading the ball to either flank before finding Ibitoye on the overlap, the winger with an easy finish for his fifth try of the campaign.
Two minutes the hosts turned the game on its head, as fly-half AJ MacGinty fed a lovely pass to Ravouvou – back in the squad after a shoulder injury – to cut through the Saints line and dive over.
But Northampton went in at the break narrowly in front thanks to a second Makepeace-Cubitt penalty, having seen a third try go begging and held up on the line minutes before.
Both sides coughed up errors again at the start of the second half and it was Bristol who paid the bigger price. Centimetres from Northampton's tryline, they were held up on their first attempt and knocked the ball on at the second, to roars from the away coaching staff.
Yet out of nowhere the hosts turned it on and started to show what they can do when in full attacking flow, running from deep after picking off a Ramm pass while Saints were pushing forward.
Flanker Steven Luatua barrelled through three tacklers with Ravouvou eventually twisting and turning over for his second, to put the Bears in front for the first time.
The hosts did not relent and while a long spell with the ball failed to get them over, they came back for a penalty which MacGinty kicked to push them six points clear.
They opened up daylight 12 minutes from time, with Batley finishing off a passage of play featuring slick handling from Ibitoye and Benjamin Elizalde out wide.
While Ramm, in acres of space, pulled one back with 60 seconds on the clock after a long ball over the top, it was too late for Northampton to come away with anything.
Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam told BBC Radio Bristol:
“Very pleased with the boys and the grit that we showed because we went down 15-0. We actually started well defensively, I could tell the boys were up to some big hits but then we turned the ball over nine times, four penalties in the space of 23 minutes.
“We kept the ball, maintained pressure, played our game, 14 points and then just before half-time back-to-back penalties again.
“I said at half-time... that’s the simple equation. If you keep turning it over and don’t respect the ball and give away silly penalties you lose the game.
“Ultimately it was a real gutsy performance, although I say we won it ugly, some of the rugby we played was pretty, was really nice, and it reminded me what I see in training week-in week-out.”
Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson told BBC Radio Northampton:
“We talk about the effort and the intent of the players and I don’t think that was ever in question. I thought we worked incredibly hard.
“I think in the second half we just fell off on some of the execution of our play, we didn’t quite get it right and that gave Bristol opportunities – they’re very good at taking those and at no point in the second half did we really exert any pressure on them to get into the game.
“I think we attacked a lot better [in the first half], I think we got the ball out of the set piece and we put them under some pressure. I can’t think in the second half of tonnes of opportunities where we sat in their 22 making them make tackles.
“A lot of it was a rearguard effort and I was incredibly proud of the effort in that, but at the same time that dam is going to break.”
Bristol: Lane; Bates, Ravouvou, Janse van Rensburg, Ibitoye; MacGinty, Marmion; Woolmore, Oghre, Lahiff, Dun, Batley, Luatua, Grondona, Harding (c).
Replacements: Thacker, Thomas, Kloska, Owen, Heenan, Wolstenholme, Worsley, Elizalde.
Northampton: Hendy; Ramm, Litchfield, Hutchinson, Seabrook; Makepeace-Cubitt, James; West, Langdon, Millar Mills, Mayanavanua, Coles (c), Kemeny, Pearson, Pollock.
Replacements: Wright, Iyogun, Green, Thornbury, Scott-Young, McParland, Savala, Garside.
Referee: Craig Maxwell-Keys