Lam believes Bristol laid down a 'major marker' after comeback win at Exeter
Pat Lam described Bristol’s stunning victory at Exeter as a “major marker” for the season after his side came back from a 17-0 half-time deficit to win 20-17 at Sandy Park.
Dan Thomas came on as a half-time replacement for the injured Jake Heenan and it was the 26-year-old flanker who was at the centre of a driving maul that crashed over the Chiefs’ line in the last minute to snatch victory for Bristol and take them to the top of the Gallagher Premiership table.
Piers O’Conor scored the Bears’ other try, with Callum Sheedy kicking two penalties and two conversions.
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Director of rugby Lam said: “This victory is huge in our growth as we didn’t beat Sale or Exeter last year so to beat both was a real learning curve for us and a major marker.
“Exeter are a power-reliant team and they were fully loaded today and to come here is a real mental and physical challenge.
“We didn’t play our best rugby but we were top shelf in terms of attitude and commitment.
“We gave away soft tries in the first half so the message at half-time was to start from scratch, stick to our systems and build the scoreboard.
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“We are proud to be top of the league but we are still gutted at throwing three points away at Harlequins.”
Thomas said he was “over the moon” to help his side to the summit of the table but hailed Bristol’s attitude and resilience.
“You have to challenge yourself when you come down here and when we went 17-0 down, our heads didn’t drop,” he said.
“Their points came from our mistakes but our offloading game worked better for us in the second half and we stuck to our systems.
“We were lucky to come out on top but I’m over the moon.”
Exeter had built up a 17-0 lead through tries from Sam Simmonds and Nic White with seven points from the boot of Joe Simmonds, but Chiefs boss Rob Baxter was critical of his side’s second-half performance.
He said: “We didn’t do ourselves justice today as it was just basic sloppiness.
“We made silly mistakes and when the pressure came on as a result of Nic White’s yellow card, we made some really odd decisions.”
Both bosses was asked about their view on Saracens’ fine and deduction of 35 points for breaching the salary cap.
Lam said: “It’s all about having a level playing field and we would do anything like that as we do everything by the book.
“We have one of the richest owners in Steve Lansdown but we won’t consider anything illegal and the rules are very clear about what you can and can’t do.”
Baxter added: “It’s for other people to decide what Saracens’ fate is and we and the other 10 clubs should just focus on themselves.
“Losing today was nothing to do with events off the field.”
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Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood 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.
30 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.
9 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.
30 Go to comments