Bristol Bears score nine tries against Pau to put one foot in the Champions Cup last 16

Bristol Bears put themselves on track to qualify from the pool stages of the Champions Cup with a dominant 61-12 win over French side Pau on Sunday.

The Bears kept pace with Northampton Saints and defending champions Bordeaux Begles, who both also have two wins from their opening pool stage games, to claim third spot in Pool 4. Last weekend’s failure to claim a bonus point in the 17-16 win at Scarlets means a home tie in the last 16 knockout round may be tough to achieve with a trip to the Bulls and a visit from Bordeaux to come, but the Bears now move eight points clear of fourth-place side Scarlets.

The French Top 14’s second-place side came to Ashton Gate significantly underpowered and were duly punished, with the Bears running in nine tries through Ellis Genge, player of the match Benjamin Grondona, Kieran Marmion, Kalaveti Ravouvou, Gabriel Oghre, Benhard Janse van Rensburg, Joe Batley, Aidan Boshoff and Santi Grondona. Fly-half Tom Jordan added 16 points with the boot.

A brace of tries from Pau’s teenage centre Fabien Brau-Boirie gave the visitors some consolation from their trip.

Bristol, most likely having seen the fact that Pau opted to bring a changed side to Ashton Gate having lost their opening game of the tournament at home to Northampton, pulled Louis Rees-Zammit and Max Lahiff out of the match pre-game as precautionary measures after they reported tight calves in training, with one eye firmly on next weekend’s trip to Twickenham to take on Harlequins.

However, their focus was fully on the task at hand on Sunday night, come kick off, with a snarling and fired up Genge blasting over the whitewash to finish a 90m strike move with just 55 seconds on the clock.

Bristol’s second score was a work of art as a delayed pass from Marmion put Fitz Harding through a gap, and the Bears captain drew the last defender before releasing Grondona to score under the posts.

After seeing off some pressure from Pau, who had a try disallowed for a forward pass, the Bears hit back on 26 minutes through Marmion, who was on the right-hand shoulder of Grondona after the young flanker broke through the line again. Jordan, having moved from 15 to 10 for this game, added his third successful conversion.

There was still time for two more tries before the interval, with Bristol’s superstars shining brightly. Ellis Genge sparked the attack with a rampaging, angry run from deep to get the hosts on the front foot. Benhard Janse van Rensburg then made a very difficult pass look very easy, zipping the ball out to Kalaveti Ravouvou, who stepped in to out before dotting down in the corner.

Jordan missed his conversion effort from the left touchline, but added the extras to the Bears’ fifth score after a driving maul delivered Oghre over the line to emphasise the forward dominance on display against their underpowered Pyrenean visitors.

The tries kept following early in the second half, with Janse van Rensburg doing exceptionally well to gather a clever chip kick over the top from Marmion that bounced off the turf and into his outstretched arms. A juggle and a couple of knocks from Pau players around him could not stop the South African scoring.

The Bears’ seventh try started deep in their half, but was finished by a long-striding Batley in the right-hand corner.

With the scoreboard reading 47-0, Bristol boss Pat Lam started replacing his star men.

Pau’s standout performer Brau-Boirie finally got the visitors off the mark after claiming a bouncing grubber kick in behind from Dan Robson before stepping Elizalde to score.

But Bristol added two more through Boshoff and replacement Santi Grondona, who capitalised on a hard-fought turnover from Harry Thacker.

In Pau’s best attack of the game, a wide pass released Brau-Boirie to step inside a scrambling Boshoff to touch down his second of the night.

The game ran out of steam in the final quarter, but the Bears head into the New Year having completed their assignment in the opening European tests.

Bristol Bears: 15. Benjamin Elizalde, 14. Kalaveti Ravouvou, 13. Benhard Janse van Rensburg, 12. James Williams, 11. Aidan Boshoff, 10. Tom Jordan, 9. Kieran Marmion, 1. Ellis Genge, 2. Gabriel Oghre, 3. Lovejoy Chawatama, 4. Pedro Rubiolo, 5. Joe Batley, 6. Joe Owen, 7. Benjamin Grondona, 8. Fitz Harding (c)

Replacements: 16. Harry Thacker, 17. Jake Woolmore, 18. Jimmy Haliwell, 19. Santiago Grondona, 20. Luka Ivanishvili, 21. Sam Wolstenholme, 22. Sam Worsley, 23. Josh Carrington

Section Paloise: 15. Aymeric Luc, 14. Aaron Grandidier Nkanang, 13. Fabien Brau-Boirie, 12. Quentin Valentino, 11.Thomas Carol, 10. Clément Mondinat, 9. Dan Robson, 1. Daniel Bibi Biziwu, 2. Lucas Rey (c), 3. Siate Tokolahi, 4. Thomas Jolmes, 5. Mickael Capelli, 6. Joel Kpoku, 7. Clément Paul, 8. Carwyn Tuipulotu

Replacements : 16. Youri Delhommel, 17.Remi Seneca, 18. Jon Zabala Arrieta, 19. Remi Picquette, 20. Loic Credoz, 21. Thomas Souverbie, 22. Nathan Decron, 23. Reece Hewat

Referee: Eoghan Cross (Ire)

Assistant Referees : Robbie Jenkinson (Ire) and Padraic Reidy (Ire)

TMO: Leo Colgan (Ire)

Player of the match : Benjamin Grondona

Attendance : 15,302

Bristol Bears score nine tries against Pau to put one foot in the Champions Cup last 16

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