After a brief hiatus, four more seasons in the Premiership followed as Bristol Rugby Football Club, including a third-placed finish in 2006-07. However, the side was relegated once more in 2008-09. This time, there would be no immediate return to the Premiership and the Bristol rugby team played in the RFU Championship until 2016. During this seven-year period, they actually came top of the table on five occasions, but they lost in the play-off final three times and in the semi-finals once.
After a fourth relegation in 2016-17, the Bristol rugby team is now an established Premiership side. Plus, upon their return to the Premiership in 2018, the team even officially rebranded as the Bristol Bears.
The rebrand seems to have changed the fortunes of the traditional yo-yo team. After all, the Bristol Bears have been in the Premiership ever since and, in the 2019-20 season, the team even came third and made it to the semi-final of the play-offs. In the same season, the Bristol Bears even won the European Rugby Challenge Cup for the first time.