Pat Lam ready for more after Bristol Bears' solid start leaves coach looking up the table rather than down
Exclusive: The Bristol head coach hopes their passionate Ashton Gate support means away days soon become as winnable as their home games
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The Premiership establishment were right to be worried about Bristol Bears. Four games into the season, Pat Lam’s side sit eighth in the table, but with as many wins as Bath in fourth and an unblemished home record ahead of Saturday’s visit of Northampton Saints.
The fear among many head coaches and rugby directors this summer was that every club this season is capable of beating each other - even if Saracens and Exeter Chiefs look so strong at the top - meaning the the relegation trap door is wider than ever.
Already there are concerns at Sale Sharks as they sit bottom of the pile, with former Northampton coach Dorian West arriving this week to try and improve their desperate search for a front-five that can give the their lethal back-line the ball they crave, while Northampton and Newcastle are looking nervously over their shoulders given that Worcester’s impressive win over Leicester last weekend proves they will not be the whipping boys this season either.
But what of Bristol?
The high of the opening day victory over rivals Bath was quickly followed by losses on the road to Saracens and Gloucester. While that isn’t surprising for a team promoted from the championship against last season’s winners and a Gloucester side tipped for the top four this term, Lam was still disappointed with the return. Sure, home form will be crucial to keeping Bristol in the top flight, but the charismatic coach has no intention of focussing only on matters at Ashton Gate.
“I would’ve liked four wins, that would’ve been ideal,” says Lam, “but one thing I can’t question is the commitment, the character, the effort, the teamwork.
“The application is massive and I’m really pleased with the guys with that. Obviously there’s so many improvements to make in our game as we go from one challenge to the next as we continue to grow as a team and I’m excited that we’re getting better every day, and every game we’re getting better.
“That’s the challenge about this Premiership - there’s so many different challenges. You finish up against Bath then you go away to Saracens then you go away to Gloucester then home to Quins and Northampton, it’s a wonderful competition. But through those challenges, what I’m happy with is the learning of the team, which is coming on nicely.”
What enables Bristol to perhaps eye their away days is the fact that Ashton Gate is proving just an intimidating venue to travel to. More than 26,000 packed into the stadium for the opening game of the season, and while last weekend saw that number dip to 12,287, it was still the third-highest attendance of the round ahead of Newcastle, Saracens and Sale.
The trip down to Bristol this week only highlighted that this is very much rugby country. Eddie Jones’ England squad were in town at the start of the week for their three-day training camp, with the young eyes of Clifton College of them on Monday before Lam’s squad watched them in action the following day at their Clifton Rugby Club base. Driving from venue to venue only revealed more rugby pitches in the surrounding area, and with such passion behind, Lam feels that he can rely on the home comforts to allow his side to fight on all fronts.
“There’s no doubt we target the away games, but obviously with the home form all the advantages are yours,” adds Lam. “The home fans, home ground, you sleep in your own bed and you’re not travelling, but that’s not a given. That’s your advantage and you have to as a team take advantage of those things, and also we’re blessed with a fantastic stadium and unbelievably passionate fans.
“We have to make sure that’s to our advantage but don’t get me wrong, in the Premiership if you win those that’s fantastic but you have to go and win the away games. We went to Saracens and Gloucester with the full intention of winning those games as well, but we ended up getting nothing out of it. Every game there’s points on offer and our challenge is to go and get them.
“It’s really humbling and exciting because when I first came here, everyone talked about the passion of the south-west, and obviously you had Bath and Gloucester and now Exeter are doing a wonderful job.
“But to Bristolians, one thing I saw when I came here and got out to the community is there’s a real hunger and desire to have a successful team here, so we’re just getting a little snapshot but that’s the responsibility that we have to make sure that we come here every day trying to get better, try to be at our best and improve because better people will make better players and better players will make a better team.
“That’s what our supporters want, and I think one thing is they’re appreciative of is our character, commitment, team effort and culture, they can see our boys working really hard, they can see we’re not nailing things completely and there’s a lot of imperfection in our game and a few things to work on, but the one thing I’m proud about is they see our boys are working really hard.”
Another victory on Saturday against a Northampton side that, despite the exciting arrival of Chris Boyd from the Hurricanes this summer, is yet to find the new identity that the club desperately needs to pull away from the scrap at the bottom, would send out the biggest statement so far. Sitting in eighth, Bristol could find themselves inside the top six come the end of the weekend to put serious space between themselves and Saints, who end up bottom after five games if Sale gets a result against Bath.
That’s exactly what Lam said Bristol wanted this season, but no one expected that scenario to unfold so soon.
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