Pat Lam: 'You know how many times I talk about that... I don’t really care'

Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam was beaming with pride after his side opened their Prem campaign with an impressive 34-24 bonus-point victory at Sale.

The hosts touched down through hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie and a brace from winger Tom O’Flaherty but Bears duo Louis Rees-Zammit and Harry Randall both scored twice before team-mate Tomas Gwilliam added a late fifth.

The result saw Bristol lay down an impressive marker in Salford and left Lam delighted.

The Bears boss said: “We know that it’s such a hard place to come and win up here, so I’m very pleased and proud of the boys.

“I’m pleased because they got good evidence of the work they put into pre-season and the things we’ve been working on.

“You can do all of that, but you want evidence – and the boys got that.”

Although scrum-half Randall earned the player of the match accolades, Lam stressed that the result was a collective effort.

He added: “I know Harry got the man of the match, but I look at the amount of work everyone did to produce a team effort.

“You know how many times I talk about that and I don’t really care who scores the tries.

“What I see is the work that went before it and we finished off the teamwork.

“And our game is truly based on working hard for each other in attack and defence and certainly the boys worked really hard in defence.

“Sale put us under a lot of pressure and we managed to hold them out.”

Courtney Lawes, signed from French club Brive during the summer, made his debut for Sale and played 80 minutes in the back row.

It was his first appearance in the Prem since he led Northampton to the title at Twickenham in 2024 and Sharks boss Alex Sanderson was pleased with the 37-year-old’s efforts.

Sanderson said: “I thought he carried well and defensively he was strong – and it was eighty minutes for old legs.

“Courtney certainly didn’t look off the pace and he’s probably one of many that we believe there’s more to come, there’s more in him.

“And that’s the most positive thing, there’s so much room for improvement.

“There’s so much room to improve for next week, and we will come back in on Tuesday and go again.”

Sanderson was left disappointed with his side’s inaccuracy with the ball, adding: “In elements of the game we were dominant but the basics let us down and it wasn’t the result we wanted to start with.

“At times for myself and the players it was wildly frustrating with the inaccuracies with the ball and ill discipline without it. We just feel like we gave them too many opportunities.”