Bristol Bears cemented their place in the Gallagher Premiership top four with a comfortable bonus point win over Northampton Saints at Ashton Gate.

First half tries from Andy Uren, Harry Thacker and Alapati Leiua put the Bears in a good position at the break and after some stubborn resistance from the visitors the hosts completed the job with scores from Chris Vui, Ben Earl, Piers O’Conor and Luke Morahan.

The 47-10 victory for the Bears secured their first Premiership double over the Saints since the 2006/7 season.

The home side started the game off strongly with the TMO correctly ruling out a Charles Piutau try in the first 90 seconds, but it was the visitors who took the first points of the game through a James Grayson penalty.

Northampton’s lead did not last long with the Bears scoring their first try of the match when Harry Thacker touched down from a well-formed driving maul.

Bristol’s lead was doubled soon when after another strong driving maul was brought down short of the line, smart handling from Piutau fed Alapati Leiua for the Bears second try.

Pat Lam’s men were on a role and added a third try before the drinks break, scrum-half Andy Uren scoring his second try in as many games after a delightful line break from Ben Earl.

Andy Uren of Bristol Bears dives over to score

The Bears bonus point try nearly came through Thacker, but the hooker was perhaps thinking of glory when attempting a dummy instead of passing to Semi Radradra who had a clean path to the line.

The visitors attempted to get back into the game from a five-metre line-out but a strong defensive effort from Bristol forced a knock-on.

Before the break, the Bears had one last chance to attack after winning a scrum penalty against the head five metres out, however they could not cross the line and went into the break 21-7 ahead.

In contrast to the first half, the opening ten minutes were dominated by the visitors with a combination of Bristol giving away a number of penalties and some strong Saints attack building the pressure on the Bears defence. However, the Bears held strong, with Nathan Hughes turning the ball over from a driving maul to win back possession for the home side.

Northampton dropped to fourteen men with 25 minutes to go after injuries to both their loose-head props meant the scrums went uncontested and the rules state you cannot replace the player and have to play a man down.

Despite the man disadvantage, it was Northampton who got the first score of the half through replacement winger Josh Gillespie crossing for his first Premiership try.

Kyle Sinckler of Bristol Bears runs with the ball

Eventually Bristol secured the bonus point victory, capitalising on the man advantage to spread the ball wide and score in the corner through Chris Vui.

Vui’s try opened the Northampton floodgates with the home side adding three more tries before the end of the game

First Ben Earl picked a gap from the base of a ruck to run in under the posts.

Then Piers O’Conor finished arguably the try of the game straight from the kick-off, with five players linking up outstandingly to send O’Conor under the posts.

And it was Luke Morahan who got the final score of the game collecting a Callum Sheedy cross-field kick for the Bears seventh and final try of the game.

The Bears attacked into the final stages and had a chance for an eight via Morahan, but the Australian was denied by a try saving Henry Taylor tackle and the score remained 47-10 at full-time.

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Bristol Bears 15. Charles Piutau; 14. Luke Morahan, 13. Semi Radradra, 12. Piers O’Conor,  11. Alapati Leiua; 10. Callum Sheedy (c), 9. Andy Uren; 1. Jake Woolmore, 2. Harry Thacker, 3. Kyle Sinckler, 4. Dave Attwood, 5. Joe Joyce, 6. Chris Vui, 7. Ben Earl, 8. Nathan Hughes.

Replacements: 16. Will Capon, 17. Yann Thomas, 18. Peter McCabe, 19. Steven Luatua, 20. Dan Thomas, 21. Chris Cook, 22. Max Malins, 23. Luke Morahan.

Northampton Saints 15. Tommy Freeman, 14. Ryan Olowofela, 13. Fraser Dingwall, 12. Piers Francis, 11. Taqele Naiyaravor, 10. James Grayson 9. Tom James; 1. Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi, 2. Mikey Haywood, 3. Ehren Painter, 4. Alex Moon, 5. Nick Isiekwe, 6. Jamie Gibson, 7. Lewis Ludlam (c), 8. Shaun Adendorff

Replacements: 16. Reece Marshall, 17. Nick Auterac, 18. Karl Garside, 19. Lewis Bean, 20. Tui Uru, 21. Henry Taylor, 22. Reuben Bird-Tulloch, 23. Josh Gillespie

Referee: Tom Foley

Assistant referees: Jack Makepeace and Simon McConnell

Attendance: Behind Closed Doors