Bristol revise the heated first impression of their Champions Cup crash
Bristol boss Pat Lam has pointed the finger of blame in-house for his team’s frustrating Heineken Champions Cup round of 16 exit in Bordeaux. The Gallagher Premiership club coach initially expressed his anger over refereeing decisions that happened during the course of the April 4 17-36 defeat.
However, having had more time to reflect, he and his coaching staff are now taking their frustrations out on the training ground, clamping down on training game infringements in the hope of ensuring Bristol can be a better disciplined, less error-strewn team in the run-in to the Premiership semi-finals.
Bristol return to action on Saturday at Newcastle and they hope that the intense work they have done during their 13-day gap in between competitive matches will ensure they are not left cursing their luck – and the referee – again.
The Bears started beautifully in France with a Henry Purdy try but they then got into penalty trouble and trailed 15-14 at the break before going on to lose following the concession of two tries in the closing ten minutes, the first one a hotly debated concession as it was felt that Bordeaux had knocked on earlier in the move.
That incident left Lam fuming but he has since made his peace with the Champions Cup refereeing team and instead taken matters into his own hands at training to try and influence an improvement when league leaders Bristol head to Kingston Park at the weekend.
Fuming. https://t.co/fpUQKmQFmS
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) April 4, 2021
Asked what was the main takeaway from the painful European exit was, Lam said: “Discipline. We should have been two, three scores ahead. It is easy to say that but when you show options that were available, holes that were available, either us dropping the ball or passing when we were in gaps…
“We scored an excellent team try off a set-piece, Henry Purdy, which gave us a start, but we gave away ridiculous penalties that were of our own making. We arrived at half-time where we had pretty much gifted them 15 points from stupid decisions.
“Discipline was an issue against Harlequins, it was an issue against Sale, so we have had a really good time to discuss solutions on how we improve that, so we have been working away on that and hopefully we will see that this weekend.
“A lot was made of the officials but I have spoken to Joel Jutge and I am comfortable they look that. That is not the reason we lost. Certainly, we should have been in a stronger position before we got to that last ten, 15 minutes. After half-time, we made three or four real basic errors which put us under pressure in the first five minutes.
“You go through it, deal with the players individually and as a group in the sense that they get a chance to reflect and feedback on it, and we came out of that with really good outcomes and that is the sort of thing you want to improve.
“No one wants to not play their best, no one wants to make mistakes, but there were things that cost us and you say, right, here is our learning and there is more emphasis. Even at training now we make sure we call guys who are a centimetre offside or bad pictures – and the players drive that as well.”
Pre-Covid, the Bears used to have referees along to training to help spruce up their act. Now the officiating is left to the Bristol coaches and they have been busy in the aftermath of their Champions Cup exit. “You will have someone who is looking up and down the field radio in if it is offside. It’s fair to say we haven’t been as tight on that but that has been one of the outcomes for us as coaches looking at.
“We have got to look at ourselves and say, right, we have to have stronger consequences and what the players have come saying too we have got to do that at training as well. They have come up with some good ideas. I won’t share them. Everyone wants to drive this together.
“We can’t keep doing ‘sorry boys, my bad’ because it cost us in the Champions Cup. We are trying to get guys to reflect their game, not only on the technical thing of I was offside or I missed the jump or I missed the tackle, we put that in the context and the moment in the game and then have a really good reflection.
“You can say well I missed my lift but that was the last lineout where we had a chance to win the game. When you put in tactical context it certainly helps the growth.”
'Can you imagine a Premiership club going ‘Right lads, we’re going skiing’. Absolutely no way… it was me, Bryan Habana & Duane Vermeulen learning to ski together' @Dmjattwood fell out of love with rugby at Bath but found it again, writes @heagneyl 👨💻 https://t.co/QWWZQPD1Ek
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 21, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
After their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
2 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
28 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
3 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to comments