Bristol secured their eighth place in the Zurich Premiership table as they condemned champions Leicester Tigers to a surprise 38-21 defeat, their fourth of the season.

Both sides were reduced to 14 men just before the interval as international referee Steve Lander sent Bristol's England prop Julian White and Leicester's England Under 21 number eight Adam Balding off for fighting.

However, 10 minutes from the end of the game Bristol second row Garath Archer and Tigers England Under 21 lock Peter Short found the more lenient side of Lander who took no action, other than a verbal caution, after they exchanged blows on the ground under the watchful eye of senior touch judge Trevor Fisher.

Bristol welcomed back skipper Jason Little (back) and Andy Higgins (flu) in the centre plus ex-England lock Archer (back) while Darren Crompton came in to the side at loosehead prop for Paul Johnstone (medial ligaments).

The visitors fielded just two players - full back Geordan Murphy and wing Ollie Smith - from the side that started in last weekend's Heineken Cup semi-final victory over Llanelli while another four, including Martin Johnson, were on the bench.

Bristol, having pinned the Tigers back in to their own half in the early stages, opened the scoring after just seven minutes as Higgins, the England Under 21 centre, took a long pass from Little, before switching back inside to score the opening try.

Argentinian international Felipe Contepomi added the conversion from in front of the posts then missed a penalty from close to the left touchline before landing one from the right touchline and a second from 35 metres out.

Leicester went further behind as Bristol scored two tries in quick succession either side of the half-hour mark.

Little repeated Higgins move score the first before Contepomi intercepted a wide pass to score in the left corner.

Contepomi converted both to set a new club points record in the league before Leicester breached the Bristol 22 for the first time in the game as Murphy found a gap between Little and Crompton to scored by the posts.

The seemingly simple conversion from fly-half Andy Goode was embarrassingly sliced well wide but he made no mistake as he landed from 40 metres a couple of minutes later.

Goode added his second penalty after the two players were sent off by referee Lander as Bristol led 27-11 at the interval. Contepomi landed his third penalty after the restart before the Tigers were reduced to 14 men when Goode was sent to the sin-bin for killing a ruck.

Bristol took advantage of the extra man with England A wing Phil Christophers, who was on the Tigers' books two years ago, scoring in the left corner to give the Shoguns a try-scoring bonus point.

Just before the hour mark former All Black flanker Josh Kronfeld ran in from 40 metres to score in the right corner despite the efforts of Higgins to stop him grounding the ball.

Centre Glenn Gelderbloom scored the Tigers' third try in the right corner but Contepomi kicked his fourth penalty from the half to seal the game.