FIJI Water Flying Fijians winger Kalaveti Ravouvou's Bristol Bears side were thrashed 94-33 this morning by Gallagher PREM leaders Northampton Saints.
Indiscipline cost the Bears as Ravouvou and Matias Moroni were shown yellow cards.
Saints fullback George Hendy ran in four tries as they confirmed their place in the play-offs.
Saints scored 14 of the 19 tries and recorded the most first-half points scored by any team in PREM history (61) as they put their loss at Leicester emphatically behind them.
Bristol’s semi-final hopes now look in tatters as they fell to a record league defeat and lie four points behind fourth-placed Exeter ahead of their match against Harlequins on Saturday.
A crazy night started with Northampton striking with just over three minutes played, Henry Pollock’s long pass led to Hendy scoring down the left.
Bristol quickly levelled when Harry Thacker squeezed over, but Saints were just as swift in retaking the lead when Rory Hutchinson ran in after his side won possession deep in Bears territory.
The Bears were soon back within five points at 19-14 when a swift move involving Harry Randall and Rich Lane led to Louis Rees-Zammit flying in to score down the right.
But their hopes of a turnaround took a big blow when Kalaveti Ravouvou was sin-binned for deliberately knocking on George Furbank’s pass inside his own 22.
Northampton were ruthless in his absence, with Alex Coles securing the bonus point on his return from injury before Archie McParland picked up Freeman’s loose pass to run in his side’s fifth try.
The Bears had another consolation when Noah Heward scored under the posts, but after Matias Moroni saw yellow for tripping Pollock, Sam Graham stretched over for Saints before Hendy’s fourth completed the rout.
Source: rugbypass.com
