Bristol beaten by Stormers in Champions Cup opener

Tries: Senatla, Zas 2, Roche 2, Gelant, Venter Cons: Feinberg-Mngomezulu 7

Bristol Bears (7) 12

Tries: Owen, Moody Con: Worsley

Bristol Bears conceded seven tries as they lost to South African side Stormers in their first pool match of this season's Champions Cup.

Seabelo Senatla raced clear for Stormers' opening score and then showed incredible footwork to control a pass with his boot before offloading to fellow winger Leolin Zas.

Joe Owen powered over in the corner to reply for Bristol but Stormers quickly restored their 14-point advantage with a Jonathan Roche try.

Stormers hooker JJ Kotze was shown a 20-minute red card before the interval for making head-to-head contact in a tackle with Bristol skipper Kieran Marmion.

The Bears had spells of pressure while the hosts were down to 14 players either side of half-time. And in a period when Stormers had just 13 men after Zas had been sin-binned for a high tackle, Bristol finally reduced their deficit as Sol Moody emerged from the back of a maul to touch down.

But any hope of a comeback was short-lived as two Bristol players collided when attempting to claim a high kick and Roche collected the loose ball to score his second.

Replacements Warrick Gelant and Andre-Hugo Venter added further scores late on, as did Zas, to secure a bonus point for Stormers, while South Africa fly-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu converted all of his side's seven tries.

Bristol, who have won two of their first three Prem games, host Munster in their next Champions Cup fixture on 12 December, before rounding off the pool phase against French clubs Racing 92 and Bordeaux in January.

Stormers: Willemse; Senatla, Simelane, Roche, Zas; Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Reinach; Matongo, Kotze, Sandi, Smith, Schickerling, De Villiers (capt), Kolisi, Roos.

Replacements: Venter, Mchunu, Porthen, Evans, Norton, Fourie, Pead, Gelant.

Bristol: Wilson; Pepper, Moroni, Bates, Boshoff; Worsley, Marmion (capt); Woolmore, Gwilliam, Halliwell, Rubiolo, Caulfield, Owen, Jenkins, Ivanishvili.

Replacements: Moody, Turner, Scott, Wells, Pearce, Harris, Williams, Worsnip.

Referee: Kevin Bralley (France)

Assistant referees: Vincent Blasco Baque (France) and Flavien Hourquet (France)