Bristol v Northampton: Five takeaways as ‘electric’ Louis Rees-Zammit lights up Ashton Gate after England midfielder’s ‘sparked out exit’
Bristol's Louis Rees-Zammit evades Northampton's George Hendy to score and, inset, the injured Benhard Janse van Rensburg
Following a 41-26 win for Bristol over reigning champions Northampton in their PREM Rugby clash at Ashton Gate on Saturday, Planet Rugby picks out five takeaways from the round two action.
The top line
20 weeks after they were humiliated by 14-try Northampton in a record 94-33 loss at Franklin’s Gardens, Bristol gained retribution with this deserved six-tries-to-four home win.
It wasn’t an unexpected win in the sense that you have to go back to November 2021 for the most recent Saints league victory at Ashton Gate, but it was pleasingly hard-fought and deserved thanks to a second-half surge where they scored three tries before the visitors hit back only to then sabotage themselves with late yellow cards.
Following a cagey start in which rival punters James Williams and Fin Smith kicked dead attempted penalty touch finders to the corner, the Bears got the scoreboard moving with a seventh-minute maul try from Ben Grondona. However, that advantage lasted just three minutes as the Saints pounced with second-phase possession following a scrum.
The ball popped out from the hard-hit Rory Hutchinson was gobbled up by alert Henry Pollock, and his arcing run drew the attention of last defender Tom Jordan and allowed George Hendy an easy run to the corner for the lead-taking converted try.
Bristol struck back with a 16th-minute penalty from Williams and after surviving Ollie Sleightholme butchering a chance with a fumble and then a Smith kick crossing the deadball line before Tommy Freeman could get there, they eventually moved 15-7 ahead nearing the interval.
A number of visits to the 22 had gone without success – some penalties to touch and also a cancelled Tom Jordan score – before Louis Rees-Zammit’s rapid acceleration beat Hendy out wide for the converted try; the Welsh winger celebrated by mimicking Pollock’s pulse check.
This eight-point advantage was cut to one before the break, though, Saints executing a strike play off scrum ball and Smith putting Hendy in for his second with a super pass after the match had restarted following the injury to Benhard Janse van Rensburg that required an eight-minute stoppage for treatment.
The second half began with Bristol hitting back with a 43rd-minute converted Jordan try. They were further buoyed by Curtis Langdon’s obstruction on Gabriel Oghre being enough to cancel Alex Coles try a few minutes later, and the lead moved out to 29-14 with Harry Randall’s bonus point-earning try on 52 minutes.
Another home score followed nine minutes later. Pedro Rubiolo bundled Callum Chick behind the line for a five-metre scrum after Williams’ penalty kick cannoned off an upright, and the attack that followed ended with Rees-Zammit diving in.
Saints weren’t done, however, as evident in the Hendy break that set up Alex Mitchell’s 64th-minute converted response and Josh Kemeny’s unconverted bonus-point try four minutes later. Smith crucially couldn’t nail the conversion from out wide, leaving the margin at eight points.
That was enough of a cushion to allow Bristol to clear their heads and apply the pressure that got sub prop Ion Neculai, on 75 minutes, and Freeman, on the stroke of full time, sin-binned. The latter foul play resulted in a penalty try due to an off-the-ball tackle on Rees-Zammit.
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Sparked out England midfielder
Bristol midfielder Van Rensburg began this round two PREM Rugby fixture by clattering into Pollock after the visiting No.8 caught the kick-off, but his match was prematurely ended by a follow-up collision between the pair after the first half clock had just tipped into the red.
Defending an attack on their line that had begun with a lineout, the sixth phase of play was stopped when Smith alerted referee Ian Tempest to his fellow England international getting left lying on the ground and sparked out.
Van Rensburg had tried to race forward to tackle Pollock, but the back-rower’s sidestep resulted in the tackle-committed South African getting his head in the wrong place and a lengthy halt to the play resulted.
More than eight minutes passed before Van Rensburg was carefully carried from the pitch by the medics, but the player helped to alleviate the concern over his health by slowly clapping his hands together as the fans reacted to his departure.
The 29-year-old’s actions were a good outcome following an upsetting delay, and it was then confirmed at the interval that he was back on his feet. It was further evidence that the injury was a concussion and not any serious damage to his neck, something that everyone at Ashton Gate was relieved about.
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Electric wingers
After the Friday night fireworks just down the road in Bath from Exeter’s two-try Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, Bristol’s Rees-Zammit eventually eclipsed Hendy in an enchanting head-to-head duel where they finished with two tries each.
Rees-Zammit, who was denied his hat-trick by Freeman taking him out off the ball after he had kicked ahead into space in the final minute, lasted the duration unlike Hendy, who had to hobble off the pitch with seven minutes remaining and his team trying to claw back an eight-point gap.
It was Hendy who got the personal battle going with a 10th-minute run-in with Rees-Zammit nowhere to be seen, but the Bear winger soon hit back. There was a 50:22 kick four minutes later and a 32nd-minute break in the lead-up to a cancelled-out Jordan score before his break four minutes later left Hendy grasping air and Bristol fans joyously wallowing in Rees-Zammit’s pulse check celebration.
Hendy had the final say of the half with his excellent clock-in-the-red finish in the corner, but Rees-Zammit started the second half better with his break an important contribution in the Jordan try that did stand.
Next there was some robust over-the-line defending from the Welsh winger when preventing Coles from grounding in the play that wasn’t reviewed as Northampton were penalised for an earlier obstruction, and Rees-Zammit celebrated by scoring on 61 minutes off a Gabriel Ibitoye assist.
Hendy struck back by giving Mitchell the assist for his score, but the ding-ding head-to-end ended with the limping departure of the Saint, clearing the way for Rees-Zammit to enjoy an emphatic final say for Bristol. It was a tremendous battle between the pair of rival wings.
England’s scrum-half triangle
With five weeks to go before Steve Borthwick’s England open the Northern Series of the Nations Championship with a November 8 game at home to Australia, the clash of Randall against Archie McParland was another intriguing sideshow.
The head-to-head was won by the Bristol No. 9, but Mitchell, who came on as the Northampton sub on 52 minutes for McParland, illustrated how quickly he can up the tempo of a match.
It was early September when Randall and McParland were named alongside Leicester’s Jack van Poortvliet as the three scrum-halves for a three-day international camp, a gathering that McParland ultimately didn’t get to due to illness.
This club clash offered the chance to compare himself with Randall, but it didn’t go well for the youngster as Randall was the more effective starting nine.
The Bear wasn’t perfect, mind. It was his silly knock-on that cancelled out Jordan’s first-half try, but he kicked very impressively and picked some nice running lines in a performance that was rewarded with his 52nd-minute try. That was the cue for Phil Dowson to swap Mitchell on for McParland.
Mitchell did well in helping Saints recover from being 34-14 behind, trimming the 20-point gap back to eight, but that was as good as it got on a day when Randell, who played for 73 minutes, was the scrum-half on view.
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‘Spuds’ Pollock carries fight
It was heartening to see another outing from Pollock that was less antics and more grunt but still with plenty of his frills. With Northampton conceding 15 penalties to Bristol’s seven, as well as two yellow cards, it was a tough day for the champions, but the No.8 repeatedly carried the fight to the winners.
He was by far and away their busiest ball carrier, and he also topped his team’s tackle chart in a performance that fleetingly looked like it could be cut short as the match was just minutes old when he took a wincing blow to his ‘spuds’ and needed treatment before carrying on.
Pollock’s attacking threat was best showcased with the clinical manner he set up the opening Hendy try, accelerating brilliantly to his left and exposing the Bristol defence, and his best defensive moment was the 26th minute breakdown penalty he won when Joe Batley threatened the line.
His success infuriated Jake Woolmore and Bristol got marched additional metres before the penalty was kicked. Pollock was a lively presence for the Saints along with the snappy passing of Smith and the physicality of Coles, but it wasn’t enough to subdue the Bears, who had a shiny star in the work rate of Rubiolo.
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