Premiership: Bristol 31-19 Wasps - Back-to-back defeats dent Wasps' top-four chances

Niyi Adeolokun's converted try made it 21-0 to Bristol inside the opening half hour

Wasps' hopes of a making the top four and a play-off place were dented with a Premiership defeat at Bristol Bears.

Harry Thacker, Antoine Frisch and Niyi Adeolokun all crossed for Bristol before Gabriel Oghre reduced the deficit to 21-7 at half-time.

Alapati Leiua capped a fine team move to earn Bristol a bonus point after collecting Tiff Eden's superb pass.

Will Porter went over to spark some life into Wasps but Marcus Watson's try was too late to mount a comeback.

Although Bristol's recent run of six defeats in eight games means their play-off chances are all but over, their sixth win of the season keeps up their push for a European Champions Cup place.

Back-to-back defeats for Wasps, however, leaves them five points behind fourth-placed London Irish in eighth. That gap could increase further when Exeter and Gloucester play their games this weekend.

Wasps had no answer to Bristol's pace and power in the opening 30 minutes with Thacker bundling over before Frisch and Adeolokun both finished smartly.

Fly-half Eden, starting for only the third time this season, was also clinical with the boot as he converted all four tries and added a penalty to put some gloss on to the victory.

The visitors improved after the break and replacement wing Watson's try with five minutes to go cut Bristol's lead to nine points.

But Eden's penalty a couple of minutes later settled any late nerves for Pat Lam's side who stay 10th.

One bright spot on an otherwise disappointing night for Wasps was the return of England flanker Jack Willis. The 25-year-old made his first start in over a year following a serious knee injury.

Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam:

"It has been one of the toughest weeks I have known and I told the boys to go out there, express themselves and enjoy it, just make the most of it.

"I hope to get some reinforcements next week and we will need some tight-head props from the academy as Max Lahiff suffered a calf injury at a time when we are without Kyle Sinckler and John Afoa.

"It is a big win for us. After we lost at Worcester last week, the players called a meeting. They were annoyed that we had wasted so many chances through individual errors and were determined to front up against Wasps, which they did."

Wasps head coach Lee Blackett:

"The attitude of the players was first-class and we had more of the game than Bristol in terms of possession. It was a game we should have won, but for the second week in a row we paid for turnovers.

"We coughed up too much ball and that is something we have to put right. A positive was that we have some big players back for the run-in. Jack Willis made his first start since the beginning of last year and we gave him an hour.

"He played really well in the first-half and gave us go forward. We created far more clear-cut chances than Bristol, but because we lost the ball too often at the breakdown we did not convert many into tries."

Bristol: Purdy, Adeolokun, Radradra, Frisch, Leiua, Eden, Strang; Woolmore, Thacker, Lahiff, Attwood, Joyce (c), Vui, Heenan, Jeffries.

Replacements: Byrne, Y. Thomas, Armstrong, Luatua, D. Thomas, Lloyd, Sheedy, O'Conor.

Wasps: Umaga, Odogwu, Spink, Mills, Bassett, Atkinson, Robson; West, Oghre, Alo, Launchbury (c), Stooke, Gaskell, J Willis, T Willis.

Replacements: Van Vuuren, Harris, Toomaga-Allen, Carr, Barbeary, Porter, Gopperth, Watson.

Referee: Matthew Carley

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