When Lee Robinson scored his obligatory try against Bath after 20 minutes and then cut a lovely running line to set up David Lemi for his try three minutes later it appeared the writing was on the wall for Bath. "Here we go again" crossed my mind and the thought of having countless Brisslers rubbing our noses in another defeat was almost more than I could bear.

Bath started the match none to auspiciously by dropping the ball from Bristol's kick off and this set up one of may Bristol attacks on the Bath Red Zone throughout the first half. However it was Bath who got first chance to score, through an Olly Barkley penalty but the Bath centre was way off mark. Bristol's Danny Gray followed this up with a shot of his own, after (blood-replacement) Chev Walker was penalised for handling in a ruck, but this was the first of a handful of awful attempts by the visiting fly-half.

Against the run of play Bath scored the first try of the match through hat-trick hero, Nick Abendanon. After defending their line for several minutes Bath's Chris Malone hoofed a kick up to the Bristol twenty-two. At the lineout Steve Borthwick brilliantly stole the ball to set up his back line for a quick-handed move across field which culminated in the Bath full-back side-stepping Robinson and Taumalolo before dashing in to score. This may have been Abendanon's game in terms of try-scoring but in my mind it was the leadership of Borthwick that drove his team forward to one of their best ever victories.

Bristol reverted to their domination of the first half and within five minutes of Abendanon touching down Lee Robinson stamped his mark on the first half with a try of his own followed by a superb assist.

A late Barkley penalty drew Bath to within two points at half-time when they could so easily have been left in tatters had the visitors taken advantage of their possession and territorial dominance.

God knows what Meehan and Borthwick said at half time but if they could bottle it perhaps they could sell it to Duncan Fletcher, Steve McLaren and The Turncoat so we could once again be proud of our national teams. Whatever was said definitely worked.

Bristol started the second half with an opportunity to stretch their lead but the hapless Gray missed another sitter and amazingly the visitors never scored throughout the second 40 minutes.

All the scoring was left to Bath with seven tries (yes that is seven as in 7) with Joe Maddock opening the floodgates after 49 minutes. Following a penalty line-out deep in the Bristol Twenty-two, the Bath forwards made several attempts at breaking through the solid Bristol defence before Nick Walsh moved the ball across to Chris Malone who quickly fed Shaun Berne so the Aussie could feed Maddock for an easy run in to score.

Three minutes later Tom Cheeseman showed excellent strength as he wrestled with Lee Robinson in the Bristol goal area before getting the ball to ground for his try. The young Welshman's try followed a series of excellent forward drives, led by the marvellous Danny Grewcock, before the backs whipped the ball across field to stretch the Bristol defence first one way and then another before creating space for Cheeseman to run towards the Bristol goal-line. At this point I should add that the often criticised Chris Malone was whipping wide passes in a style reminiscent of a certain Mr Catt.

Shaun Berne then grabbed a brace of tries within a three minute stint around the hour mark. The first came after Josh Taumalolo was hauled down by three Bath defenders and then Danny Grewcock lunged forward a long leg to disrupt the Bristol clearance. Zac Feaunati grabbed the lose ball and fed Berne who ran unopposed to the Bristol line. 

Berne's second try resulted from a mistake by Tongan international, Josh Taumalolo, as he dropped the ball on half-way following an innocuous Bath clearance. From a quick Andy Williams' scrum, Chris Malone fed a very flat Olly Barkley who brilliantly split the defence in two before off-loading to (once again) an unopposed Shaun Berne. Barkley took one hell of a hit by drawing the defender to give Berne the best chance of scoring. The crowd was roaring and Steve Meehan even allowed a smile to cross his normally very serious face. The cries of "Bristol! Bristol!" were by now conspicuous by their absence.

But Bath were far from finished. Nick Abendanon grabbed two more tries to give him possession of the match ball at the end of the game. The first was somewhat lucky as the pass from Berne to Maddock was so far forward that even a one-eyed Bath supporter could have spotted the illegality but the second was brilliance personified. In the week that Matt Perry hung up his boots the young man destined to take his place for both club and country sparkled.

Abendanon picked up the ball on the edge of his Twenty-two and scooted past five defenders, showing strength belying his stature as he shrugged off two Bristol forwards. Moving the Ball out wide to Joe Maddock, Abendanon snuck inside to take the return pass before trotting over the Bristol goal-line with apparent ease. If you weren't on your feet cheering by this stage you were probably dead or a Bristol supporter!

To top off a marvellous 40 minutes of Bath rugby, late replacement David Bory dropped a shoulder to side step the Bristol full-back as he finished off a Bath attacking move that started in their own Twenty-two. Berne's conversion brought up the Bath half-century and suddenly the Bath faithful had a sneak preview of what life would be like when they all get to heaven.

It would be wrong to single out star players in the second half but I have to make a comment about Matt Stevens. He looked fit, strong and showed some great handling skills. His return to the England starting lineup can't be far away.

Same thing next week against Bristol in the Moz Match - why not!

Bath: Nick Abendanon; Joe Maddock, Shaun Berne, Olly Barkley, Tom Cheeseman; Chris Malone, Nick Walshe; David Barnes, Pieter Dixon, Matt Stevens, Steve Borthwick (capt), Danny Grewcock, Andy Beattie, Michael Lipman, Zac Feaunati
Replacements: Lee Mears, Aaron Jarvis, Peter Short, Jonny Faamatuainu, Andy Williams, David Bory, Chev Walker.

Bristol: Josh Taumalolo; Lee Robinson, Neil Brew, Sam Cox, David Lemi; Danny Gray, Shaun Perry; Dave Hilton, Mark Regan, Darren Crompton, Mariano Sambucetti, Gareth Llewellyn (capt), Roy Winters, Joe El Abd, Andrew Blowers
Replacements:David Blaney, Alex Clarke, Nathan Budgett, Craig Short, Greg Nicholls, Jason Strange, Luke Arscott.

Referee: Donal Courtney

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