PREM: Bristol 46-12 Northampton: Brilliant Bears brush aside Saints in superb attacking showing

Saints did try and get back into the game in the second half, through JJ Van der Mescht and Tom Litchfield but Bears were dominant in all areas, particularly the penalty count.

It was a far cry away from Northampton's last outing in the PREM, a brilliant 43-31 victory over Saracens, and the task now will be to pick themselves up as Bath and co loom just below them in the table.

The visitors started off in the worst possible way as Edoardo Todaro was sent off for a dangerous tackle in the air on Sam Worsley.

With early momentum behind Bristol, Marmion snuck over between two defenders to cross for the first try. Worsley added the extras to compound a horror opening five minutes for Northampton.

The Bears soon added a second try with some neat and calm phase play. Joe Batley came close with a pirouetting effort. James Williams received the ball after the resulting ruck and gave off a quick offload to release Jordan over the try line.

Marmion secured a brace of tries as the Bears continued to tear Saints apart. Harry Thacker brought in three defenders, to bring him down, and Marmion simply dived over the line, in similar fashion to his first score.

Thacker thought he secured Bristol's bonus point try in the first half but Worsley was adjudged to have caused a turnover from an offside position.

Explosive Fijian winger Ravouvou raced in from halfway to ensure that Bristol claimed the bonus point. Benhard Janse van Rensburg lined Fin Smith up, causing the England international to lose the ball. Ravouvou gratefully swooped it up and sprinted away.

Replacement Boshoff, who came on for Tom Jordan whilst undergoing an HIA, crossed over untouched just before the end of the first half.

Once again, Batley was dominant in the breakdown and protected the ball. Worsley threw a long pass out to the right wing for Boshoff to score.

Saints began the second half in much better fashion. A series of pick-and-go's at Bristol's line congested the defence but Northampton did not need to go wide. Behemoth van der Mescht crashed over from short range with Smith adding the extras.

Worsley extended his side's lead a couple of minutes, adding to his superb display off the tee, with a penalty. With ten penalties conceded at the 55th minute, to Bristol's three, Saints were losing the battle consistently.

Litchfield added Saints' second try, on the receiving end of a perfectly weighted grubber kick from the impressive George Furbank. Northampton did show some fight but the damage had already been done in the first half. Worsley added another penalty to increase Bristol's lead over 40 points.

Luka Ivanishvili ended a perfect Saturday night for Bristol as the Bears finally got a second half try. A dominant maul, set up from Janse van Rensburg's 50:22, the Georgian gleefully fell over the line.

Worsley could not add the conversion as the league leaders were handed their first defeat of the Gallagher PREM season.

Tries: 6 (Marmion 5', 15', Jordan 9', Ravouvou 29', Boshoff 39', Ivanishvili 80')

Conversions: 5 (Worsley 6', 10', 16', 29', 38')

Penalties: 2 (Worsley 49', 73'

Drop Goals: 0

Yellow Cards: 0

Red Cards: 0

Starting XV: 15. Tom Jordan 14. Jack Bates 13. Benhard Janse van Rensburg 12. James Williams 11. Kalaveti Ravouvou 10. Sam Worsley 9. Kieran Marmion; 1. Jake Woolmore 2. Harry Thacker 3. Lovejoy Chawatama 4. Pedro Rubiolo 5. Joe Batley 6. Santiago Grondona 7. Fitz Harding (c) 8. Viliame Mata

Replacements: 16. Gabriel Oghre 17. Max Lahiff 18. Jimmy Halliwell 19. Joe Owen 20. Luka Ivanishvili 21. Sam Wolstenholme 22. Louis Rees-Zammit 23. Aidan Boshoff

Tries: 2 (van der Mescht 47', Litchfield 59')

Conversions: 1 (F. Smith 48')

Penalties: 0

Drop Goals: 0

Yellow Cards: 0

Red Cards: 1 (Todaro 1')

Starting XV: 15. George Furbank (c) 14. Edoardo Todaro 13. Tom Litchfield 12. Toby Thame 11. Amena Caqusau 10. Fin Smith 9. Archie McParland; 1. Emmanuel Iyogun 2. Craig Wright 3. Trevor Davison 4. Ed Prowse 5. JJ Van Der Mescht 6. Josh Kemeny 7. Sam Graham 8. Callum Chick

Replacements: 16. Robbie Smith 17. Tom West 18. Cleopas Kundiona 19. Archie Benson 20. Tom Pearson 21. Tom James 22. Rory Hutchinson 23. James Pater

On the week that it was announced that Benhard Janse van Rensburg would be eligible for selection by England in 2026, the native South African put in a performance that Steve Borthwick cannot ignore.

It was a deserved player of the match performance as the centre tore through the Saints' defence at any given opportunity.

"It was really good to start the second block (of the Gallagher PREM), with a performance like that," said Janse van Rensburg, speaking to TNT Sports post-match.

"I thought our game drivers, Kieran Marmion and Sam Worsley, put us on the front foot the whole time, by kicking us into the right places on the field.

"To have something like that, to put us into the right areas of the pitch, it was really nice.

On England aspirations, he said: "I'll see what happens when the time comes. I just try and focus. We have a big goal as a Bears team to win the Premiership and this is something I just focus on.

"Play the best rugby I can. After the year, whatever happens, happens."

For a team coming into the match unbeaten, Northampton did not look their usual selves.

It was a relatively weaker side put out, with some key players like Alex Mitchell, Alex Coles and Henry Pollock yet to return from the Autumn Nations Series.

From the blow of the first whistle, they were pinned back from an accurate kicking display and torn through by hard runners from Bristol.

England's Fin Smith was unable to exert his influence on the match, with Bristol successfully shutting him down at every opportunity.

With aspirations of winning the league, home form is paramount to reaching the playoffs and beyond.

Despite not being able to show his sheer pace and dancing feet, Louis Rees-Zammit put in a solid performance to help his side bat away the Saints.

"We won a lot on the road and not so much at Ashton Gate. We kind of wanted to turn that around. Now, we've got three out of three at Ashton Gate. It's absolutely massive for us," said the Welsh international.

"We're both teams that like transition. We like to run the ball a lot. We've both got dangerous backlines and big forwards, so today was about winning the field.

"We went to the air quite a bit today and tried to win the crumbs, which also creates transition. I think we did well today.

"I think the forwards dug in so deep and they were absolutely amazing. It helped us as backs out so much."

Speaking on his side's victory after the match, Bristol head coach Pat Lam piled praise on his team's performance.

"I'm really proud of the boys", said Lam. "This period of time we've identified nine games where we had an horrendous run and I was really proud of the five games, getting three wins and we only had two at home.

"We had to adjust our game because we had so much firepower missing. We've been focusing in on just being seven out of ten.

"Just get your roles done. I don't care who scores tries. It's all the work off the ball. It's how we chase and fight for everything. That's what we focused on and it's been brilliant today. The first half was brilliant."

For a team who has been ravaged with injury since the start of the season, with star players picking up issues in most matches, Bristol picked themselves up and showed their class. Expect them to be in the top four battle at the end of the season.

In only the first minute of the match, Todaro received his marching orders for taking out Worsley in the air in dramatic fashion.

With his eyes fixed on the ball, it appeared the Italian winger did not expect Worsley to already be in the air by the time he arrived.

Todaro ploughed into Worsley's legs and flipped the fly half fully over in the air and landed awkwardly on his neck.

Referee Ian Tempest duly pulled out the red card and sent Todaro off with a twenty minute red card.

It was a disastrous start for Saints and a heartbreaking moment for the 19 year old, who did not intentionally cause to take Worsley out.

Unfortunately for Northampton, Bristol grasped the opportunity playing against 14 men excellently, scoring three of their six tries as Saints were a man down.