Pat Lam hits out after second-half cheap shot on Bristol star player Semi Radradra
Bristol boss Pat Lam struggled to suppress his anger after star player Semi Radradra took “a big forearm to his face” during Friday night’s Gallagher Premiership clash against Worcester.
The Bristol rugby director lamented rugby union’s “cheap shots” following the second-half incident that left Radradra requiring treatment. And it was television match official Geoff Warren who bore the brunt of Lam’s annoyance following a 36-13 win at Sixways.
“Semi is a big player for us, and those sort of cheap shots, it (could have been) an HIA (head injury assessment), he is out of the next game and everyone gets affected by it,” Lam said.
“It shouldn’t be going on in our game. Hopefully, they [officials] can learn from that too, particularly the TMO. When we got to 22-3 ahead, I was gutted we had a try disallowed in the corner.
“I can’t understand all the interrogation and going through every part of that try, yet Semi Radradra gets a big forearm to his face and they don’t even look at it. I’m not talking about Wayne (match referee Wayne Barnes), I’m talking about the TMO. And there were a few other things that weren’t picked up as well.
1?6?8?m
1?3? carries
5? clean breaks
1? turnoverIt's getting a bit silly now, Semi ? pic.twitter.com/pjCBEXJgMs
— Bristol Bears ? (@BristolBears) September 4, 2020
“It’s all very well looking at no tries, but you have got to look at the safety of some of the players. That was frustrating. Semi doesn’t go down. He is a tough man. I saw what happened, and I’m just amazed the TMO didn’t pick it up. We saw it clearly on the footage. Wayne didn’t get the close-up shot, so he had to make the call from a wide one.”
Bristol reclaimed second place in the Premiership and moved three points above Sale Sharks to lead the chasing play-off pack behind runaway leaders Exeter. It was the raw power and creative flair of Fijian Radradra that did for Worcester as Bristol scored tries through his midfield partner Siale Piutau, lock Ed Holmes, flanker Dan Thomas, scrum-half Andy Uren and back-row substitute Ben Earl.
Fly-half Callum Sheedy added a penalty and four conversions, but Worcester – 21 points behind Bristol before kick-off – gave their opponents a scare and led at half-time after full-back Melani Nanai’s try, plus two penalties and a conversion from Scotland international Duncan Weir.
Both teams finished with 14 men after Warriors’ replacement lock Andrew Kitchener was sent off for punching Siale Piutau, who received a yellow card following the 79th-minute incident.
Lam said: “Semi can make things out of nothing. He was on fire tonight. He has been waiting for a nice dry day. He showed what he can do. I’m pleased we got the five points. The second half was a lot better, but our discipline was poor again – we are now averaging (conceding) 17 penalties a game.
“We know we can score from anywhere, but we also know if we are not on it, we can concede from anywhere as well. A lot of that is because we don’t control the ball as well as we could.”
Reflecting on Worcester’s 13th league defeat of the season, Warriors rugby director Alan Solomons offered no excuses. “The first half, I thought we played really well. We had a number of try-scoring opportunities,” he said.
“But the second half, we came out and turned over a plethora of ball and we ended up tackling the whole of the half. We couldn’t build any pressure. Full marks to Bristol, they deserved their win, but I think we made a rod for our own back with what we did.”
5? tries and a whole lot of Radradra-themed carnage. ?
Here's your match highlights from Friday night's @premrugby victory at Sixways. ??#WORvBRI
Watch here ?
— Bristol Bears ? (@BristolBears) September 5, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
Hats 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?
1 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.
1 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 commentsAnd the person responsible for creating a culture of accountability is?
2 Go to commentsMore useless words from Ben Smith -Please get another team to write about. SA really dont need your input, it suck anyway.
264 Go to commentsThis disgraceful episode must result in management and coach team sackings. A new manager with worse results than previous and the coaching staff need to coached. Awful massacre led by donkeys.
1 Go to commentsInteresting article with one glaring mistake. This sentence: “And between the top four nations right now, Ireland, France, South Africa, and New Zealand…” should read: And between the top four nations right now, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and France…”. Get it right wistful thinkers, its not that hard.
23 Go to commentsHow did Penny get the gig anyway?
2 Go to commentsNice write up Nick and I would have agreed a week ago. However as you would know Cale & co got absolutely monstered by the Blues back row of Sotutu, Ioane and Papaliti and not all of these 3 are guaranteed a start in the Black jumper. He may need to put some kgs before stepping up, Spring tour? After the week end Joe will be a bit more restless. Will need to pick a mobile tough pack for Wales and hope England does the right thing and bashes the ABs. I like your last paragraph but I would bring Swinton, Hannigan into the 6 role and Bobby V to 8
21 Go to commentsThe Crusaders can still get in to the Play Off’s. The imminent return of outstanding captain Scott Barrett and his All Black team mate Codie Taylor will be a big boost.There are others like Tamaiti Williams too. Two home games coming up. Fellow Crusader fans get there and support these guys. I will be.
1 Go to commentsCant get more Wellington than Proctor.
2 Go to commentsWhy not let the media decide. Like how they choose the head coach. Like most of us we entrust the rugby system to choose. A rugby team includes the coaches. It's collective.
13 Go to commentsHi NIck, I have been very impressed with him and he seems a smart player who can see opportunities which Bobby V _(who must be an international 6_) doesn’t see or have the speed to take advantage of. If he continues to improve and puts on 5kgs then he could be a great 8. He is a bit taller than Keiran Reid at 1.93m and 111 kgs, so his skill set fits his body size and who knows where it will lead. I hope the spate of Achilles tendon issues have been dealt with by the S&C people. It’s been a very long time since Mark Loane and Kefu stood out at 8. The question is will we be able to hold onto him, if he does make it he will be pretty hot property. I disagree with the idea of letting them go to the Northern Hemisphere and then bring them back.
21 Go to commentsBilly Fulton 🤣🤣🤣🤣 garrrmon not even close
13 Go to commentsDoes the AI take into account refs? hahaha Seriously why not have two on field refs to avoid bias?
23 Go to commentsVern challenging this Blues side might be the edge they need to fulfill their potential. Convincing results from strong D and strong carries are hard to argue against.
1 Go to commentsLove seems to add a strong back field defense with speed to close the gap and tackle to his ability to attack, kick and pass (an accurate long pass). This sets him an edge over some of the other names - JRK in particular. Has to be said that Jordan and Stevenson have also been exposed defensively while Love has yet to face test match intensity. Spoilt for choice.
1 Go to commentsHe’s strung together a few strong seasons, I’d like to see him in the ABs and build some depth along with Reiko and ALB. Levi Aumua hasn’t taken the step we hoped to see but time yet.
2 Go to commentsWhere has our good friend Pecos gone!? Similar place to the Crusaders D, the abyss.
4 Go to commentsNice piece Nick. I haven’t seen much of the brumbies this year so will keep my powder dry on charlie, but clearly has the speed and footwork to be damaging in space. Similar to Samu, I’d worry about the size of our pack if the likes of Mcreight and Cale were in the b/row together. Maybe Cale could play a similar finisher role like Samu did for Rennie’s wallabies. Has Cale leapfrogged wilson in your eyes? He obviously has the lineout, but harry probably better (although not great) in the physical stuff and also has great hands in the loose. You’d have to say mcreight and valetini are shoe-ins at 7/8, so the question becomes who matches best with them at 6 and on the bench. I don’t know if he has a high enough ceiling, but id love to see wright given a shot based on how much bad luck he has had with injuries. He may also fit that no-nonsense graft/work rate irish approach…? If schmidt wants size and a 4/6 tweener then I’d probably pick Uru. On the bench I’d have no idea, Wilson if you want to give valetini a rest, and maybe hanigan/wright/uru as 6 replacements.
21 Go to comments