A second-half fightback from Bristol Bears fell short as play-off rivals Leicester Tigers took the spoils in a hard-fought Gallagher Premiership clash at Ashton Gate.

Tries from Gabriel Ibitoye, Kalaveti Ravouvou and Harry Randall, plus four points from AJ MacGinty, were not enough for the Bears as they fell to back-to-back league defeats.

Adam Radwan opened the scoring for Tigers inside five minutes following a quick break from Jack van Poortvliet, but it did not take long for Bears to respond.

Slick hands from the hosts provided space to Ravouvou, who delivered an outrageous offload, as he was falling, out the back of his hand to put Ibitoye over on his return.

Bears were their own worst enemy for the rest of the first half, conceding a second try to Tigers on 18 minutes when Ollie Hassell-Collins intercepted to go in under the posts.

Van Poortvliet added a third for the visitors on 25 minutes, with Handre Pollard converting before knocking over a simple penalty to make it 22-5 as half-time approached.

Tigers were lucky to escape with just a yellow card before the break as Joe Heyes was sent to the sin-bin for a high tackle on Fitz Harding, forcing the Bears skipper off the field for a blood injury as the visitors went into the interval with 17-point lead.

The home side needed to strike first after the restart and they did just that as Ravouvou provided another moment of magic to finish a scintillating move down the left wing.

With more than 16,000 fans inside Ashton Gate cheering the Bears on, the comeback looked on until the momentum was halted on 63 minutes by a Freddie Steward try.

Pat Lam’s men continued to battle and managed to hit back again on 66 minutes as Randall raced through to score following a break from Benhard Janse van Rensburg and MacGinty, with the latter stepping up to slot the extras to make it 29-19 to Tigers.

Bears were given further hope when Solomone Kata was sin-binned for a high tackle, but the home side were unable to find another score as the time ticked away.

Tigers finished the scoring in the final minute as Cameron Henderson crossed the whitewash, with Jamie Shillcock converting, to hand Bears a 36-19 defeat.

Bristol Bears: 15. Rich Lane, 14. Deago Bailey, 13. Kalaveti Ravouvou, 12. Benhard Janse van Rensburg, 11. Gabriel Ibitoye, 10. AJ MacGinty, 9. Harry Randall; 1. Ellis Genge, 2. Gabriel Oghre, 3. George Kloska, 4. James Dun, 5. Josh Caulfield, 6. Steven Luatua, 7. Fitz Harding (c), 8. Viliame Mata.

Replacements: 16. Harry Thacker, 17. Yann Thomas, 18. Max Lahiff, 19. Benjamin Grondonda, 20. Jake Heenan, 21. Kieran Marmion, 22. Benjamin Elizalde, 23. Joe Jenkins.

Leicester Tigers: 15. Freddie Steward, 14. Adam Radwan, 13. Solomone Kata, 12. Joseph Woodward, 11. Ollie Hassell-Collins, 10. Handré Pollard. 9. Jack van Poortvliet; 1. Nicky Smith, 2. Julián Montoya (c), 3. Joe Heyes, 4. Cameron Henderson, 5. Ollie Chessum, 6. Hanro Liebenberg, 7. Tommy Reffell, 8. Olly Cracknell

Replacements: 16. Charlie Clare, 17. James Whitcombe, 18. Will Hurd, 19. Matt Rogerson, 20. Emeka Ilione, 21. Ben Youngs, 22. Jamie Shillcock, 23. Dan Kelly