Bristol Bears claimed the derby honours against Bath Rugby on Saturday, winning 40-21 at Ashton Gate, but it will be Johann van Graan’s side who have the last laugh as they advance to the quarter-finals of the Premiership Rugby Cup.

Results elsewhere around round six of the pool stages mean Bath will face Harlequins at the Recreation Ground in two week’s time, while victors Bristol will have five long weeks to wait until they face Exeter Chiefs when the Gallagher Premiership resumes.

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Both sides registered three tries in the first half with Fitz Harding, Siva Naulago and Bill Mata striking for Bristol in a trio of well-constructed scores, while visitors Bath punished a trio of mistakes to score opportunistically through Ruaridh McConnochie, Cam Redpath and Tom Carr-Smith; to leave the sides locked at 21-21 at the interval.

But despite Bath’s stronger bench, the loss of Orlando Bailey to a hamstring injury contributed to the away side failing to register a point in the second half. Bristol in contrast touched down through Harry Byrne, Harry Rowson and Sam Wolstenholme to delight the majority of the healthy 17,317 in attendance at Ashton Gate.

Bristol opened the scoring after just four minutes when skipper Harding powered his way over the whitewash following a quick tap penalty from Gabriel Oghre. But the Bears then gifted Bath a way back into the game as a loose pass from Oghre missed the entire backline and McConnochie continued his renaissance as he picked up the difficult bouncing ball and found his way over the try line, touching down under extreme pressure.

Shortly after Benhard Janse van Rensburg was shown yellow for killing the ball at a breakdown after a powerful break from Arthur Green, but 14-man Bristol responded by taking the lead. A sumptuous Harry Byrne 50/22 kick put the hosts in a position to strike and from the resulting lineout the ball came to the Irish international fly-half who pulled back a deep pass to the looping Naulago to burst through a tackle from McConnochie and crash over on his return from a calf injury.

But the rusty Naulago then got shown up in defence as Bath turned the ball over in the opposition 22 and Redpath sold a dummy to the Fijian soldier to dart in under the posts. Naulago then tapped a high box kick back to no one and the electric Carr-Smith gathered the bouncing ball and showed impressive pace to race into the corner for a 50m solo score. Bailey’s conversion handed the visitors a 21-14 lead.

Both sides then produced try-saving tackles, with Rich Lane forcing a knock-on from Alfie Barbeary after a sharp interception from the number eight and Ewan Richards tackled and bounced back to his feet to win a penalty for holding on following an athletic break from Joe Owen.

A minute before the break, Bristol number eight Mata folded over the line to see the sides go in level after a highly entertaining first 40 minutes.

Bristol came out with real intent and were inches away from scoring in the corner through Kalaveti Ravouvou with the first significant assault in the Bath 22, but McConnochie just managed to drag him into touch.

However, after Carr-Smith was yellow carded for being offside, Byrne smartly picked up the ball after it squirted out the back of a ruck and dived over the try-line to put the Bears back in front. And they never looked back.

Replacement winger Rowson took a short pop pass and slid over the try line before Wolstenholme found a slither of space down the blindside to snipe over in the closing moments. The next time these two sides meet will be at the Principality Stadium.

Bristol Bears: 15. Rich Lane, 14. Kalaveti Ravouvou, 13. Benjamin Elizalde, 12. Benhard Janse van Rensburg,11. Siva Naulago, 10. Harry Byrne, 9. Kieran Marmion; 1. Yann Thomas, 2. Gabriel Oghre, 3. George Kloska, 4. Josh Caulfield, 5. Joe Owen, 6. Steven Luatua, 7. Fitz Harding (c), 8. Viliame Mata

Replacements: 16. Will Capon, 17. Andrew Turner, 18. Max Lahiff, 19. Paddy Pearce, 20. Jake Heenan, 21. Sam Wolstenholme, 22. Sam Worsley, 23. Harry Rowson

Bath Rugby: 15 Ciaran Donoghue, 14 Joe Cokanasiga, 13 Louie Hennessey, 12 Cameron Redpath, 11 Ruaridh McConnochie, 10 Orlando Bailey, 9 Tom Carr-Smith; 1 Arthur Cordwell, 2 John Stewart, 3 Vilikesa Sela, 4 Will Jeanes, 5 Ewan Richards ©, 6 Arthur Green, 7 Ethan Staddon, 8 Alfie Barbeary

Replacements: 16 Niall Annett, 17 Francois van Wyk, 18 Archie Stanley, 19 Ross Molony, 20 Miles Reid, 21 Neil le Roux, 22 Max Ojomoh, 23 Jaco Coetzee

Referee: Christophe Ridley.

Attendance: 17,317