Maddock has been a firm fan favourite over recent years and is one of the broadly undiscovered gems playing in the Guinness Premiership. He proved his worth within the first five minutes as Bath worked the blindside within the twenty-two and Maddock slipped through the outstretched hands of the Bristol defenders to glide through and plant the ball under the posts.

After a scrum on the half-way line, Bath looked to capitalise on their lead and attacked the Bristol try-line with gusto. It was a neat box kick into masses of space from Shaun Perry, after Bristol had turned the ball over, that led to Bath’s nemesis of recent years, Lee Robinson, scoring a try. Ed Barnes missed the conversion, as did Butch James miss a penalty for Bath a few moments later. The two fly-halves managed to erase their misses with penalties between the sticks to leave the score 10-8.

A late, high, and generally dodgy tackle on Maddock from Robinson didn’t result in a yellow card (much to the chagrin of the crowd, to who I swear as I saw Robinson offer two fingers) but did result in a try from the penalty which followed. The attack swept across the pitch, and keeping flush to the line, Andy Higgins scrambled through to the try-line, and off loaded the ball to Maddock who scored his second try.

Shontayne Hape kept impressing in the second half, bursting through holes and racing around the Bristol defence. A Butch James classic set up Alex Crockett’s try, as James slid a grubber through Bristol ’s feet and into space, ready for the Bath captain to collect the ball and run under the posts to guarantee the conversion. Scrum-half Hayden Thomas came on to replace Perry, and was swiftly yellow carded. In his absence, the increasingly classy Hape created chances and kept smashing over the gain-line. A Bath scrum five metres from the try-line was repeatedly disrupted by Bristol , and referee David Rose had had enough, and ran under the posts to award a penalty try, securing Bath ’s bonus point. 

Bath were totally dominant now, except they constantly showed a worrying tendency to knock the ball on. Bristol tackled bravely, but too often allowed Bath through cheaply. This was evident in the next try- the huge bulk of Daniel Browne looked graceful as he loped from behind the 22 to the try-line to down the ball. A very similar- but much blonder- try rounded things off, as Nick Abendanon cut a beautiful line to free up captain Alex Crockett who scored Bath ’s 6^th try of the afternoon.

Referee: David Rose

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