Bristol Bears locked in second spot in the Gallagher Premiership before the two month-break in league action with a 55-35 win over bottom-of-the-table Newcastle Falcons on Sunday.

Wingers Kalaveti Ravouvou and Noah Heward both touched down a brace of tries with Gabriel Oghre, Bill Mata, Kieran Marmion and Deago Bailey joining them on the scoresheet, with Harry Byrne adding 11 points from four conversions and a penalty. Benhard Janse van Rensburg added a further pair of conversions after taking over the kicking duties when the Irish fly-half limped off. Newcastle recorded an attacking bonus point with Ben Stevenson adding a brace and tries from Callum Chick, Jamie Blamire and Max Clark, with Brett Connon adding all five conversions, but a late yellow card for Alex Hearle for a high tackle on Janse van Rensburg ended Falcons’ characterful resistance.

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Bristol started the game at a sprint as the hosts went two tries up inside the first six minutes. A powerful driving maul, with the backs adding some muscle, splintered off in-field to deliver Oghre over the try line. Byrne converted.

Moments later Falcons hit self-destruct as Byrne had a territorial kick half-charged down and the ball fell into the hands of flanker Freddie Lockwood but he missed everyone with his pass out wide and Heward was able to hack the ball on and then won the race to gather it and touch down.

With 17 minutes on the clock and the rain easing the Bears struck from long-range, attacking down the blindside from just inside their own half with Kieran Marmion releasing player of the match Ravouvou who showed devastating pace playing on the wing today. The Fijian linked back with his supporting scrum-half before getting the ball back to dive over the line despite scrum-half Sam Stuart getting back to make life difficult. The imperious Byrne again converted.

But a poor run of soft penalties from Bristol brought pressure upon themselves and Falcons took advantage through their pack with the two remaining jewels in the side, captain Chick and hooker Balmire powering their way over the line.

Bristol were first to strike in the second half and the score was nothing short of sensational to secure the attacking bonus point. Rich Lane danced his way through midfield before bursting down-field. At full speed, the Bears full-back launched a 25m pass off his right hand into the path of Ravouvou who jetted down the tram lines and around under the posts to make it a seven-point score.

But Falcons stubbornly stayed in the fight with former Bath centre Clark charging down an attempted clearance kick from Byrne and he won the race to dot the ball down in the dead ball area, with Connon adding the conversion.

Sensing a momentum shift, Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam got word on the pitch for Byrne to knock over an easy three points to extend the hosts' lead to 10-0 having previously gone for the corner without converting the pressure into points.

And moments later a brilliant set piece move from a scrum saw Clark put his centre partner Hearle through the Bristol defensive line with a no-look pass and he released Stevenson to score under the posts with Connon converting.

On 66 minutes Hearle was shown yellow with the score 31-28, and Bristol were in a deadly mood against the 14 men with Mata capping a superb individual display with a try, followed by a sensational 70m solo score from Marmion to see the Irishman continue his stunning strike rate.

With Bristol suddenly exposing Falcons in the wide channels, replacement winger Bailey and Howard pumped up the scoreline either side of a fine finish in the corner from Stevenson from a cross-field kick.

Bristol Bears: 15. Rich Lane, 14. Noah Heward, 13. Joe Jenkins, 12. Benhard Janse van Rensburg, 11. Kalaveti Ravouvou, 10. Harry Byrne, 9. Kieran Marmion; 1. Yann Thomas, 2. Gabriel Oghre, 3. Max Lahiff, 4. James Dun, 5. Joe Owen, 6. Santiago Grondona, 7. Fitz Harding (c), 8. Viliame Mata

Replacements: 16. Will Capon, 17. Jake Woolmore, 18. George Kloska, 19. Steven Luatua, 20. Jake Heenan, 21. Sam Wolstenholme, 22. Benjamin Elizalde, 23. Deago Bailey

Newcastle Falcons: 15 Elliott Obatoyinbo, 14 Max Pepper, 13 Alex Hearle, 12 Max Clark, 11 Ben Stevenson, 10 Brett Connon, 9 Sam Stuart; 1 Adam Brocklebank, 2 Jamie Blamire, 3 Murray McCallum, 4 Sebastian de Chaves, 5 Kiran McDonald, 6 Philip van der Walt, 7 Freddie Lockwood, 8 Callum Chick (c).

Replacements: 16 Ollie Fletcher, 17 Micky Rewcastle, 18 Luan de Bruin, 19 John Hawkins, 20 Ollie Leatherbarrow, 21 Joe Davis, 22 Kieran Wilkinson, 23 Oli Spencer.

Referee: Craig Maxwell-Keys

Assistant Referees: Adam Leal and Greg Macdonald

TMO : David Rose