Premiership: Bristol 51-26 Harlequins - Rampant Bears claim fourth straight win

Harry Thacker's first-half double took his try tally for the season to nine

Bristol swept aside Harlequins 51-26 with a seven-try display at Ashton Gate to keep their top-four hopes alive.

Harry Thacker, Gabriel Ibitoye and Semi Radradra propelled Bears into a 31-12 half-time lead, with Jack Kenningham and Josh Bassett responding.

Kenningham got a second to give Quins hope, but Charles Piutau and Harry Randall took the hosts past 50 points.

Cadan Murley's interception score secured a try bonus point as Quins clawed back a late consolation.

• Premiership standings

A fourth straight Premiership win leaves Bristol seven points outside the top four in seventh with four games left, while Quins are a point and a place further back after a sixth defeat in their last seven league matches.

With last weekend's record-breaking 62-8 win over Northampton still fresh in their minds, Bristol ran the ball from everywhere, and went through their party pieces in a breathless first half.

Thacker span out of a line-out catch and drive to get the ball rolling for the hosts, but Kenningham dived over from close range to quickly level after Quins worked the phases.

Piutau's audacious back-of-the-hand pass released Ibitoye to race through two challenges and restore the home side's lead, before a knock-on denied Ratu Naulago a 50-metre interception try.

However, Bristol soon had their third try when Thacker ghosted through a gap in the Quins defence to run in his second try, and the bonus point was in the bag after just 23 minutes when Radradra, on his 50th Bears appearance, attacked the line at pace and burst through under the posts.

Quins cut the deficit to 28-12 inside half an hour when a flowing move created an overlap on the left for Kenningham to run into and his inside pass found Josh Bassett's scoring run.

But AJ MacGinty took his points tally to 11 with a penalty kick to stretch the lead to 19 points before limping off.

After a quiet start to the second half, Kenningham muscled his way over for his second try to draw Quins within 15 points, but it only served to sting Bristol back into life with three tries in five minutes.

Sam Riley was shown a yellow card for a high tackle in the move that led to Randall sniping over.

And with Quins down to 14, a sweeping Bears move allowed Piutau to surge over in the corner before he added a quickfire second with a close-range finish.

As the hosts eased off, Harlequins had the final say when Murley made an interception in his own 22 and raced away to score his 11th try of the campaign.

Bristol Bears head coach Pat Lam told BBC Radio Bristol:

"I'm extremely pleased. Ultimately, four games in a row, we set up for it, we've done some really good work and got our rewards for it.

"Nineteen points out of 20 is great - it's got us in the Champions Cup zone and now we get a break.

"We've got four games left, some teams have got three games, and it's a really good opportunity now to push on to the top four and also get ready for Europe.

"We've got ourselves into a good place. With the stats over the last four games we're back to the team we were two years ago - and that's taken a lot of work from the players and the coaches."

Bristol: Piutau, Naulago, Radradra, Williams, Ibitoye, MacGinty, Randall, Thomas, Thacker, Lahiff, Batley, Vui, Luatua, Harding, Bradbury.

Replacements: Byrne, Woolmore, Kloska, Joyce, Heenan, Uren, Bedlow, Lloyd.

Harlequins: David, Murley, Northmore, Esterhuizen, Bassett, Edwards, Care, Marler, Riley, Louw, Lamb, Lewies, Kenningham, Chisholm, Lawday.

Replacements: Musk, Baxter, Collier, Herbst, Evans, Wallace, Steele, Beard.

Sin-bin: Riley (58).

Referee: Adam Leal

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