Bristol’s Tom Varndell became the Premiership’s all-time top try scorer on Friday night as he touched down for the 91st time, putting him clear of Mark Cueto’s 90.
Varndell had been waiting to break the record since New Year’s Day, when he had equalled Cueto’s mark. But the milestone was likely of little consolation to the 31-year-old as his side fell to an 42-8 defeat by Harlequins at Ashton Gate. He also sustained a knock in scoring and had to leave the field immediately afterwards.
The 31-year-old, who signed a new contract with Bristol on Monday to keep him at the club until the end of the 2017-18 season, had cancelled out Joe Marchant’s early Harlequins try but the visitors went on to score four more of their own through Mark Reddish, Charlie Mulchrone, Matt Hopper and Ross Chisholm.
Bristol remain bottom of the table while Harlequins are fifth.
Elsewhere in the Premiership on Friday Bath moved up to third by edging a 32-30 home victory against Northampton with a last-minute penalty from Rhys Priestland. That was shortly after Jamie Gibson had looked to have won the match for Northampton when he went over for a late try.
There was a close game at Sale, too, where the home side ran out 26-24 winners against Newcastle. Sale managed only three tries to Newcastle’s four but in the end three penalties from Will Addison made the difference.
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