Premiership: Bristol 36-21 Gloucester - five-try Bears miss out on top eight

Winger Semi Radradra scored two tries in his final appearance for Bristol before leaving this summer

Bristol beat Gloucester 36-21 in the West Country derby but fell short of sealing a Heineken Champions Cup place.

Siva Naulago and Harry Thacker scored early for the Bears, with Ollie Thorley crossing for Gloucester.

Magnus Bradbury and a double from Semi Radradra gave Bristol the win but Jonny May's score and a late penalty try crucially closed the gap.

Bath's win over Saracens means they move above Bristol into eighth in the Premiership on match points difference.

• Premiership table

Bristol end the season in ninth, level on league points with Bath but below them because of a nine-point deficit in match points difference, and will play in the Challenge Cup next season for the second consecutive campaign.

The Bears dominated possession during the opening 10 minutes, twice reaching Gloucester's 22 but seeing the ball turned over before finally getting on the scoresheet.

With Gloucester penalised at the scrum, it gifted Bristol the chance to kick to their five-metre line and from the line-out Thacker spun free of the maul before Naulago jumped over the line on the blindside.

Thacker crossed for his own try a few minutes later on his 100th appearance for the club, as another Gloucester penalty allowed Bristol to kick to the corner. The resulting driving maul was more straightforward with the hooker diving over from the back for his 11th try of the campaign.

Gloucester eventually retaliated with their first real attack in a sleek passage with the ball worked out wide as the Bristol defence was pulled in, allowing Thorley to run over unopposed in the corner.

An AJ MacGinty penalty gave the hosts a 10-point lead at the break and the Bristol deluge continued. Bradbury was next to cross from close range before winger Radradra - one of six players in Bristol's starting 15 playing their final game for the club - added the vital bonus point, bouldering over Adam Hastings under the posts.

Yet against the run of play, Bristol lost the ball deep in the opposition half and Gloucester quickly counter-attacked, setting off May to run clear and score.

A second try from Radradra with four minutes to go seemed to briefly put Bristol narrowly in the driving seat in the table over their neighbours.

Yet with Bath continuing to score at the Recreation Ground and the clock in red at Ashton Gate, Gloucester were the ones pushing for a score. Star full-back Charles Piutau was then yellow carded for a deliberate intercept and sent to see out his final few minutes in a Bristol shirt from the sin-bin, and the Cherry and Whites were given a penalty try.

Having started 2023 in the top four, this was Gloucester's sixth consecutive loss and means that they end the campaign second from bottom and without a win on the road since 21 October.

Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam told BBC Radio Bristol:

"I'm really pleased, we played some really good rugby. Ultimately, we knew that it was going to be an uphill battle but the main thing was get the win and do what we can.

"We got five points but it was always going to be hard when they're [Bath] playing a Saracens third team. But that doesn't take away from the performance today, finishing on a win - that's good.

"Ideally we'd like to be there [in the Champions Cup] but we've established ourselves in the Premiership. There's huge change, a lot of guys leaving - the salary cap change had a big impact on us in that sense - we've got to rebuild.

"I'm excited for the team we're building the year after and the team we've got now - we've got some really good young talent and we'll grow them and build them. Then we'll just keep going on our journey."

Gloucester head coach George Skivington said:

"In the first half it was the story of the last five or six weeks, lots of line breaks and not enough tries. We probably need to take three of those line breaks and then the second half is a good even game.

"There was some good stuff from us in attack, we have been building it all season, but it has been too little too late. You have got to finish your chances as well and that is something we will address in the off-season.

"Our set-piece has dropped off towards the end of the season and that is something we are going to have to look at. Maybe we have been spending too much time on attack in training."

Bristol: Piutau, Naulago, Radradra, Williams, Lloyd, MacGinty, Randall; Y. Thomas, Thacker, Sinckler, Batley, Vui, Luatua (c), Jeffries, Harding.

Replacements: Capon, Woolmore, Lahiff, Bradbury, Heenan, Uren, Bedlow, O'Conor.

Sin-bin: Charles Piutau (80+3 mins)

Gloucester: Carreras, May, Harris, Atkinson, Thorley, Hastings, Varney; Vivas, McGuigan, Gotovtsev, Clarke, Alemanno, Clement, Ludlow (c), Morgan.

Replacements: Blake, Rapava-Ruskin, Ford-Robinson, Jordan, Thomas, Meehan, Twelvetrees, Hearle.

Referee: Wayne Barnes

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