Bristol Bears were beaten 94-33 by Northampton Saints at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens in Round 16 of the 2025/26 Gallagher PREM

(Image: Getty Images)

Bristol Bears were humiliated by a red-hot Northampton Saints on Friday night to torch the West Country club’s play-off ambitions for another season as they were thrashed 94-33 at Franklin’s Gardens.

It was a chastening night for Pat Lam’s side, who conceded a club record number of points in a top-flight game as they failed to right the defensive wrongs of last weekend’s defeat to Saracens.

Bristol came into the game billing it as a ‘must-win’, but came away bearing potential psychological scars which risk cutting deep into the club’s psyche as the injury-hit side failed to match the attacking brilliance and intensity of the league leaders.

The game was over as a contest long before half-time, as George Hendy ran in Northampton’s ninth try of a quite frankly insane first 40 minutes.

Hendy had opened the scoring with just two minutes on the clock, but the Bears hit back immediately through Harry Thacker after a neat flick pass from George Kloska, who later limped off with a calf injury.

Rory Hutchinson and Callum Chick then touched down in quick succession for the hosts before Louis Rees-Zammit jetted down the right wing to respond, and it looked like it was going to be a case of you score, I score. But Northampton found a way to stop the Bears, while manipulating the visitors’ defence around like puppets on strings when they had the ball.

It was a day when everything stuck for Northampton, and hosts flooded through gaps, with the returning Alex Coles blasting over before Archie McParland was first to react to a misjudged restart.

George Furbank, Rory Hutchinson, Josh Kemeny and Hendy continued the rout, aided by yellow cards for Kalaveti Ravouvou and Joe Batley for a deliberate knock on and then a late tackle on Northampton fly-half Fin Smith.

Bristol’s half-time talk seemed to fall on deaf ears as Henry Pollock added his name to the scoresheet a minute after the restart for the first of three more scores in the first six minutes of the second half. Harry Randall responded for the Bears before his counterpart McFarland sealed his player of the match display with a second try.

Hendy made it a hat-trick by running in the hosts’ 12th try in the 52nd minute, but after Northampton lock Ed Prowse was yellow-carded, Lukas Ivanishvili snuck in for Bristol’s fourth to at least secure an attacking bonus point from the disastrous night.

The Bears had another consolation when Noah Heward scored under the posts from a flat inside pass from Fitz Hardinfg, but after Matias Moroni saw yellow for tripping Pollock off the ball, Sam Graham stretched over for Saints, bursting through the middle, before Hendy’s fourth completed the rout.

Northampton Saints: 15 George Furbank (c), 14 Tommy Freeman, 13 Tom Litchfield, 12 Rory Hutchinson, 11 George Hendy, 10 Fin Smith, 9 Archie McParland; 1 Emmanuel Iyogun, 2 Robbie Smith, 3 Elliot Millar Mills, 4 Alex Coles, 5 Ed Prowse, 6 Josh Kemeny, 7 Henry Pollock, 8 Callum Chick

Replacements: 16 Henry Walker, 17 Danilo Fischetti, 18 Luke Green, 19 JJ Van Der Mescht, 20 Tom Pearson, 21 Sam Graham, 22 Alex Mitchell, 23 Fraser Dingwall

Bristol Bears : 15. Rich Lane, 14. Louis Rees-Zammit, 13. Benhard Janse van Rensburg, 12. James Williams, 11. Kalaveti Ravouvou, 10. Tom Jordan, 9. Harry Randall ; 1. Ellis Genge, 2. Harry Thacker, 3. George Kloska, 4. James Dun, 5. Joe Batley, 6. Joe Owen, 7. Fitz Harding (c), 8. Santiago Grondona

Replacements: 16. Tomas Gwilliam, 17. Jake Woolmore, 18. Max Lahiff, 19. George Taylor, 20. Luka Ivanishvili, 21. Kieran Marmion, 22. Matias Moroni, 23. Noah Heward

Referee: Luke Pearce

Assistant referees: Sara Cox and John Meredith

TMO: David Rose

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