'It's poor recruitment if you bring over someone hoping they are going to be good'
Pat Lam volunteered nearly the perfect stat highlighting the importance of Bristol having skipper Steven Luatua in their Gallagher Premiership title-chasing team. Out in front with two rounds of matches remaining, starting this Saturday away to Leicester, the Bears coach suggested that the common denominator in their four league defeats this season – along with a pair of Heineken Champions Cup losses – was how Luatua was absent from their line-up every single time.
Turns out, though, this wasn’t quite the pristine statistic that Lam had been led to believe. Yes, Luatua was missing from the league setbacks against Wasps last November, Sale in February and Sale again just last Friday night. His name was also nowhere to be seen on the Bristol teams beaten by Bordeaux and Clermont in Europe. However, the Premiership outing that spoiled this alleged common denominator stat was that Luatua had started in the April league loss at home to champions Exeter.
Lam wasn’t to blame for the bum steer he dropped into the conversation at his midweek media conference where he confirmed that Luatua should be available for selection this weekend versus the Tigers after his recent injury layoff. The ‘Steve has missed all our losses’ stat had instead been given to him earlier in the week by someone else.
However, Luatua featuring in a 2020/21 defeat instead of missing all six losses can’t downplay the significance of the influence the former All Blacks back-rower has on the ambitious English club he joined in 2017 even though Bristol got relegated to the Championship after he had inked his contract in advance of the arrival of Lam as their new coach from Connacht.
It was after the Wednesday media conference that RugbyPass checked out the veracity of the Luatua absent statistic and found it wasn’t quite 100 per cent true. During the media session, though, this is what Lam had to say when we asked him to outline from his perspective the importance of the 30-year-old, 15-cap All Black to the Bristol set-up as he nears the end of his fourth full season at the club.
A postcard from Bristol ?
Steven Luatua talks exclusively about life in England to @heagneyl https://t.co/6ArdgS3b1h
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 8, 2019
“I didn’t actually realise that stat,” said Lam when asked to elaborate on his Luatua and the Bristol loss statistic. “It was someone mentioned it to me this week, they realised Steven hasn’t been involved in the games we have lost in the Premiership this year and I went really? It hasn’t been something (Bristol have tracked) but it just shows the importance of Steve. I had Steve as an 18-year-old way back when I first met him in the academy back at home at the Blues in Auckland. To see where he was there to where he is now he has grown massively.
“The big thing is Steve has been on this journey. I brought him in for the Championship at Bristol and he didn’t want to be in the leadership group then, he just wanted to get to know the players, build and so forth. But he is absolutely invested 100 per cent fully into Bristol and to everything, the journey.
“Once he did that as a person, to me it has improved him as a leader. Steven naturally first and foremost as a captain, as a player, is class, the things that he does constantly works as the breakdown king and the effort, the technical stuff that he puts into the dark arts of the game.
“When we show footage of things that people don’t see, it’s normally Steven involved. He is very comfortable in the wide channels as well so as a rugby player he is always putting the effort in but then as a leader he naturally is a calm guy. You won’t see him getting involved in fisticuffs and going off angry and all that sort of stuff.
“He will play hard but he is calm, really calm. Even when you talk to him you look at him and he just takes his time, he thinks through things. He doesn’t just come out and says things, he thinks it through. He is a deep thinker but he is very intelligent. On the field he keeps everyone focused on what needs to be done. We have got some other good leaders but Stevie is a big part of that.”
Luatua’s arrival at the then Championship club in 2017 was accompanied by speculation he might not justify the price tag and Bristol wouldn’t get sufficient bang for the big bucks they had spent bringing the back-rower over from New Zealand. Lam, though, insisted poor recruitment simply isn’t his thing and that the relationship he had previously at the Blues with Luatua made him certain it would be money very well spent by Bristol in the long run.
“If I bring in big players from the southern hemisphere it is because I know them, have a relationship with them, so I know they will be a success before they land, it’s not a guess,” he explained. “It’s poor recruitment if you bring over someone hoping they are going to be good and they are going to live up to it. There is quite a lot of hard work that goes into it. That is why some of the people I have turned down have shown up at other places and people are celebrating that signing.
“They might be good and so forth but they don’t know enough about the player or don’t really know them as a person, that is the key. What Steve is doing doesn’t actually surprise me. Same with Charles (Piutau) and same with Chris Vui, it was more around the people that knew him and then talking to him in an interview and realising that this guy will be fine. John Afoa, I had a long relationship with, so it’s about previous knowledge. I don’t like to take punts or spend not my money but the club’s money on a big signing that is a hope.”
Just three names from the 23 that played in Bristol's first match under Pat Lam in 2017 are still going strong at the Premiership title chasers…https://t.co/wBG6VOanWH
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) May 28, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
Good to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
17 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
7 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
17 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
4 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
4 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
26 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
17 Go to commentsTalking bout Ryan Crotty? Heard Crotty say in a interview once that SBW doesen't care about the team . He went on to say that whenever they lost a big game, SBW would be happy as if nothing happened, according to him someone who cares would look down.. Personally I think Crotty is in the wrong, not for feeling gutted but for expecting others 2 be like him… I have been a bad loser forever as it matters so much to me but good on you SBW for being able to see the bigger picture….
26 Go to commentsThis sounds like a WWE idea so Americans can also get excited about rugby, RUGBY NEEDS A INTERNATIONAL CALENDER .. The rugby Championship and Six Nations can be held at same time, top 3 of six nations and top 3 of Rugby championship (6 nations should include Georgia AND another qualifying country while Fiji, Japan and Samoa/Tonga qualifier should make out 6 Southern teams).. Scrap June internationals and year end tours. Have a Elite top six Cup and the Bottom 6 in a secondary comp….
17 Go to commentsThe rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
84 Go to commentsNo surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
2 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
4 Go to commentsexcellent idea ! rugby needs this 💪
17 Go to comments9 Brumbies! What a joke! The best performing team in Oz! Ditch Skelton for Swain or Neville. Ryan Lonergan ahead of McDermott any day! Best selection bolter is Toole … amazing player
14 Go to commentsI like this, but ultimately rugby already has enough trophies. Trying to make more games “consequential" might prove to be a fools errand, although this is a less bad idea than some others. Minor quibble with the title of the article; it isn’t very meaningful to say the boks are the unofficial world champions when it would be functionally impossible for the Raeburn trophy not to be held by the world champions. There’s a period of a few months every 4 years when there is no “unofficial” world champion, and the Raeburn trophy is held by the actual world champions.
17 Go to comments