For all that is bright and beautiful about Bristol’s attack this season, it was visiting Sale Sharks who provided the real sparkle at Ashton Gate.

Christmas may have come and gone for another year, but this was evidently quite the festive stuffing for the Bears, who were simply no match for their visitors.

In George Ford, the Sharks not only possess one of English rugby’s brightest stars, but a figure who provides that wise and calming influence to all those around him.

On the opposite side, Bristol’s Sam Worsley is still very much in his Premiership infancy, a raw rookie in comparison to that of Ford who, with more than 200 top-flight games under his belt, showed him the finer details of game management at the highest level.

His control of proceedings in a polished performance was in stark contrast to the Bears who, as they have done all season, looked to attack at will from seemingly anywhere on the pitch.

It’s a bold strategy that Pat Lam and his players have honed for a number of seasons now – and when it works, it’s breath-taking, seemingly unplayable at times. However, when it comes up against a defence as scrooge-like as the Sharks were here, various flaws are then exposed.

Without normal playmaker AJ MacGinty – who is set for a four-month spell on the sidelines following knee surgery – much will now be asked of Worsley in steering the Bears onwards and upwards in the New Year.

MacGinty’s absence is sure to be felt, as highlighted by Lam, the Bears Director of Rugby, who said: “If you look at him and Sam Worsley, you’ve got a 15-year gap, that’s 15 years of him playing rugby at the highest level. I had AJ with me at Connacht and he understands the way I want to play. You can see his worth to what he brings on the field and that’s more around his control. The great players – and he’s one of them – see the pictures like snapshots and make decisions straight away.

“For others it takes some time. Some can pick it up straight away, but being able to read what picture it is, that’s a different matter. Tonight, you have to say ‘well done’ to Sale, it was a great performance from them. For us, it wasn’t a great day at the office, but you get them and it’s how we react now that will be the most important thing.”

The visitors could not have envisaged a better start to the game, Rafi Quirke’s explosive dart from behind the back of a scrum on three minutes allowing him to escape the clutches of Viliame Mata before he raced clear of the cover to score in the corner.

Rob du Preez sent over a sublime conversion from the touchline, before adding a penalty as the Sharks set about the task of silencing the vociferous natives.

Bristol were not only sluggish in their endeavours, but combined with a lack of cohesion and discipline, they could not contain Alex Sanderson’s men, who took just three minutes following the sin-binning of Bristol’s Harry Randall to strike once again.

Quirke laid the foundations, sniping from deep inside the 22, after which the forwards took up the charge. Although Bristol did well to repel the threat, the ball was spun out to Ford, whose long, looping pass to the right found the unmarked Tom Roebuck to score in the corner.

Ford extended Sale’s grip just before the break with a classy drop-goal, before du Preez banged over a second penalty early after the restart to ease the Sharks into a 23-point lead.

The onslaught showed no sign of abating as Sale claimed their bonus point with two more tries, both of which were gift-wrapped by the Bears themselves. Ben Curry profited with the first, picking off a pop pass from Bears skipper Fitz Harding; then Tom O’Flaherty rounded off the pick of the scores, intercepting a James Williams pass before combining with Quirke to score in the corner.

It was little wonder, Sanderson saluted his side afterwards: “You have got to win these kind of games on the road to know that in a semi-final – maybe on the road – you can do it again. You have to do it when it matters - and it mattered this week.”

Match details

Scoring Sequence: Quirke try (0-5), R du Preez con (0-7), R du Preez pen (0-10), Roebuck try (0-15), R du Preez con (0-17), Ford drop-goal (0-20), R du Preez pen (0-23), B Curry try (0-28), R du Preez con (0-30), R du Preez pen (0-33), O’Flaherty try (0-38)
Bristol Bears: R Lane; J Bates, K Ravouvou, B Janse van Rensburg, G Ibitoye (B Elizalde 32); S Worsley (J Williams 56), H Randall (K Marmion 68); J Woolmore (Y Thomas 51), H Thacker (G Oghre 51) M Lahiff (G Kloska 42); J Dun, J Owen (B Grondona 68); S Luatua (J Hodgson 68), F Harding (capt), V Mata.
Yellow Card: Randall
Sale Sharks: J Carpenter; T Roebuck, R du Preez, L James (S Bedlow 8, G Warr 32-40), T O’Flaherty; G Ford (G Warr 65), R Quirke; B Rodd (S McIntyre 59), L Cowan-Dickie (E Caine 59), A Opoku-Fordjour (WG John 59); E van Rhyn, J Hill (J Beaumont 74); T Curry (JL du Preez 19-30, S Dugdale 59), B Curry (capt), D du Preez.
Yellow Card: Bedlow
Referee: A Leal
Attendance: 22,215