Match Centre: Gallagher Premiership: Northampton 27-33 Bristol

Northampton Saints 27-33 Bristol, Franklin's Gardens

Bristol Bears maintained their perfect start in the ongoing Gallagher Premiership as they defeated Northampton Saints 33-27 in the second round at Franklin's Gardens on Saturday.

Bristol now move to the second place in the table with nine points while Northampton are at sixth position after losing both their matches.

Northampton made a flying start to the game as James Ramm offloaded to Tom Seabrook for the opening try in the 2nd minute and Fin Smith landed the conversion to make it 7-0.

The scores were levelled in the 10th minute as they worked from close range off a lineout with eventually Magnus Bradbury going over the line and Callum Sheedy, who started in the place of injured AJ MacGinty kicked the extras to level the scores.

Ramm once again provided Northampton with the advantage as he aided in Seabrook, who muscled his way over and once again Smith improved it before Sheedy kicked a penalty from the tee to make it 14-8.

The start of the second half saw Bristol reduced to 14 players temporarily with Gabriel Ibitoye sin-binned for a deliberate knock on and the home side made use of the numerical advantage as Tom Pearson collected an offload from Tom James to touchdown but Smith's conversion drifted wide to make it 19-8.

At the stroke of half-time Sheedy kicked his second penalty goal and shortly Bradbury dived from close range and the fly-half kicked the conversion as the teams completed the opening half with a 19-18 scoreline.

The home side were the quickest to get off the block in the second half as Smith sent a grubber kick for Tommy Freeman to dot down but the conversion was missed. The momentum once again shifted towards the visitors as Max Lahiff crossed over following a driving maul and Sheedy followed with a conversion and a penalty goal to make it 24-28.

The 59th minute saw Northampton's Sam Graham sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on and Harry Thacker went over following a driving maul to make it 24-33. Smith with a penalty goal in the 73rd minute helped Northampton to narrow down the gap to six points which they could not overcome as Bristol sealed their second successive victory.

Team line up:

Northampton: Litchfield, Seabrook, Freeman, Hutchinson, Ramm, F. Smith, James; Waller, Langdon, Davison, Moon, Coles, Scott-Young, Pearson, Graham (c).

Reserves: R Smith, Waller, Millar Mills, Lockett, Munga, McParland, Grayson, Garside.

Bristol: Lane, Heward, Vakatawa, Janse van Rensburg, Ibitoye, Sheedy, Randall; Woolmore, Thacker, Lahiff, Dun, Batley, Harding (c), D. Thomas, Bradbury.

Reserves: Capon, Grahamslaw, Kloska, Caulfield, Heenan, Marmion, Williams, O'Conor.