Premiership: Bristol 25-20 Bath - Bears fight back to narrowly win derby thriller

Bristol captain Steven Luatua scores his first try of the season against Bath

Bristol secured their first Premiership win of the season in a closely fought derby with Bath at Ashton Gate.

First-half tries from Will Muir and Semesa Rokoduguni helped Bath to a 15-8 lead, as Bristol captain Steve Luatua pulled one back for the hosts.

Muir extended the visitors' lead with his second, but Bristol replied with a penalty try as Bath's Tom Ellis and then Tom Dunn were sent to the sin-bin.

Jake Kerr then bundled over to complete the Bears' comeback.

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Bristol and Bath came into the match desperate for a good performance and more importantly a win, having both lost their opening two matches of the Premiership season.

Bristol made eight changes to the side that lost to Wasps the week before, with prop Kyle Sinckler among those back in the starting XV after being given permission to return earlier than expected from his break following the British and Irish Lions tour of South Africa.

It paid off, as they won two early scrums, the second resulting in Callum Sheedy kicking the first points of the match.

But it was Bath who looked more dangerous in attack. Charlie Ewels made an early darting break down the left, getting over the try line only to then drop the ball. Their pressure did not relent and eventually Muir got the reward with their first try inside 20 minutes.

An Orlando Bailey penalty extended the lead to 10-3, but Bristol hit back quickly through captain Luatua, who sent the Bath defence the wrong way with a dummy to dive over the line.

Rokoduguni scored Bath's second try after a series of short, quick passes across midfield saw him go over in the right corner and take their lead to 15-8 at the break.

Despite coming into the match having scored just three tries between them so far this season, both sides were aggressive and daring in attack in a match that had little to separate the two.

And it was Bristol who came out for the second half firing, as Joe Joyce came within sight of the try line only to get tackled rather than pass to players waiting on the outside.

A Sheedy penalty brought Bristol within four points, but again Bath stretched ahead when Muir crossed again following an excellent diagonal kick into the right corner which he kept in before executing a one-two with Max Ojomah.

Bath, though, were made to pay for costly errors late on as Bristol upped the pressure. First, the Bristol maul shoved over in the right corner to be awarded a penalty try to close to within two points and which resulted in Ellis being sent to the sin-bin.

With a man advantage, the momentum was firmly with the home side and that was only intensified when Bath were further reduced to 13 men when Dunn was also sent to the sidelines for taking down a Bristol maul.

It was then replacement Kerr who proved to be the matchwinner for the home side when he got the ball down from a second maul to give Bristol the lead and set up a tense final 10 minutes.

Bath won a last-minute penalty inside the Bristol 22, and knowing three points would not be enough they kicked to touch for a line-out, which they won.

But Bristol held firm, winning the penalty from the ruck and ensuring they finally had a victory under their belt this season, while at the same time making Bath continue to wait.

Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam told BBC Radio Bristol:

"I'm extremely pleased for the supporters, I know they've been disappointed with our performances, and so have we. I built this team on a foundation of work ethic, on being world class at the things that don't require talent, and when we looked at the last two games, playing at this level expectations are a lot higher.

"We can make mistakes and so forth but the one thing we can't drop off is the effort, the world-class effort. You don't need world-class players, the team has been built on world-class effort.

"If we give that every week we've got a chance. When you make a lot of errors and turnovers and give away silly penalties like we did in those first two games, a lot of it is because you're not in position, so you're not making good decisions, which means you're not seeing the defence, which means you're not seeing the attack coming at you and you make poor reads.

"And a lot of why you aren't in position is because you're walking or you're waiting for someone else to do it.

"So tonight, while it wasn't perfect, it was much better in the effort stakes and we saw that in the second half. We got ahead and we closed them out at the end which was all effort."

Bath head coach Stuart Hooper told BBC Radio Bristol:

"I'm disappointed to come out on the wrong side of the result but I'm so proud of the lads. I'm confused about some of the calls, massively confused about some of the calls, which I'll pick up in the week through the right channels.

"But I'm so proud of the effort and the endeavour of the lads. I thought the young lads, Orlando, Max Ojomoh, Tom de Glanville, I thought they were outstanding the way they looked for space and exploited space.

"My feeling right now is, yes, obviously disappointment at only getting one point but huge pride in the young group that have gone out there and really showed what it means for them to play for this club."

Bristol: Piutau; Lloyd, O'Conor, Bedlow, Purdy; Sheedy, Randall; Thomas, Capon, Sinckler, Holmes, Joyce, Vui, Heenan, Luatua (capt).

Replacements: Kerr, Woolmore, Lahiff, Harding, Thomas, Uren, Frisch, Leiua.

Bath: De Glanville; Rokoduguni, Joseph, Ojomoh, Muir; Bailey, Fox; Obano, Du Toit, Stuart, McNally, Ewels (capt), Ellis, Underhill, Bayliss.

Replacements: Dunn, Boyce, Rae, Williams, Reid, Green, Clark, Watson.

Sin bin: Ellis (58), Dunn (66).

Referee: Ian Tempest.

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