Director of Rugby Clive Book pulled no punches with this honest assessment of Avon's poor performance......Several unavailabilities and two unavoidable late withdrawals did not help matters but cannot really be to blame for the lack of urgency shown during the visit to Bristol.

Avon conceded the first of the 7 tries they were going to leak during this poor display after just 5 minutes and, although they responded with a converted try from debutant Jake Coates straight away, that was the last time they troubled the scoreboard in the first half. Meanwhile St Bernadettes were far hungrier for the ball and made the most of a strong wind down the slope, aided by some indifferent defence by a surprisingly lacklustre Avon team. This allowed them to add 4 more tries at regular intervals for a 34 - 7 half time lead.

With a mountain to climb, the visitors took the game to Bernadettes early in the second half and Jonny Batchelor set up Iain Parris for his 8th try of the season before he added a superb individual effort himself from 50 metres out. At this point, it looked like Avon could make a game of it but Bernadettes kept the ball tight against the wind and took advantage of far too many Avon penalties to work their way back up the pitch and added another 2 tries.

As a small consolation in a dismal display, Avon did manage to secure a try bonus point when fly half Rob Fitch broke the Saints defensive line shortly before the end to touch down their 4th try.

With no game this week, Avon will be hoping for the return of a number of players from the injury list for the local Derby with Stotherts on the 20th November.