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'He is only 70kg, but it is not the size': The lightweight Bristol Bear with dual eligibility who is tipped for international honours

By PA
(Photo by Simon Galloway/PA Images via Getty Images)

Pat Lam hailed “a big win for the club” after his Bristol team went top of the Gallagher Premiership by beating champions Exeter 20-7 at Sandy Park.

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Bristol replaced Exeter as league leaders following an outstanding display, with victory secured through tries by centre Semi Radradra and scrum-half Harry Randall, while Callum Sheedy kicked 10 points.

“It’s a big win for the club,” Bristol rugby director Lam said.

“Coming here, we were going to get a taste of them being at their best, so we prepared accordingly.

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“We talked about what it takes at Test match level, the intensity and physicality. You can’t just rock up with those things, you have got to prepare the whole week. It was a massive effort by everybody.

“There is a long way to go, but it’s more the way we are playing rugby at the moment.

“People admire all the fancy stuff, but statistically, we have the best maul, for instance. No-one has scored a maul try against us.

“They came hard, but we hit them hard, and that’s what we planned to do.”

No-one impressed more than 23-year-old Randall, who is uncapped at international level, but is eligible for England and Wales. His latest virtuoso display was witnessed by England head coach Eddie Jones.

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Lam added: “He has got the skill-set to play at the next level if he keeps working.

“I can’t control Eddie’s decisions, but all I know is he has gone from strength to strength.

“Pound for pound he is the toughest rugby player around. He is only 70kg, but it is not the size, it is what you do with that size.

“He pops up in the right places. I believe a lot of these guys are international class if they keep on working, and all our big players stood up today.”

For Premiership and European champions Exeter, it was a second successive league loss following a 34-5 defeat at Wasps last weekend, with a Jonny Hill try converted by Joe Simmonds being their only scoring contributions.

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And the Chiefs might have a while to stew on it, given the uncertainty surrounding next week’s Heineken Champions Cup fixtures because of an anticipated travel ban for French clubs due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Exeter rugby director Rob Baxter said: “I am assuming from what we are reading that there is going to be a postponement, but we haven’t been told definitely.”

And on Exeter’s loss to their west country rivals, Baxter added: “Well done to Bristol. I thought they came here and executed what they wanted to do very well.

“You could tell by our performance last week that we had hit a bit of a flat spot. We had an expectation we would be better this week after a bit of a slap in the face, and I think we were.

“We got ourselves back in the game after a slow start, and then didn’t capitalise on some opportunities we got.

“To be fair to Bristol they were just that bit more composed and made things count in our 22 a little more than we did.

“The reality is that we’ve probably got to look at ourselves and have a little bit of a reset moment.”

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J
Jon 7 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

40 Go to comments
A
Adrian 12 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

40 Go to comments
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