Pat Lam proud as Bristol defy stormy weather to hold off Exeter

Bristol Bears director of rugby Pat Lam admitted he was “really proud” of his team after they weathered the awful conditions and a second-half fightback from Exeter Chiefs to triumph 20-7 at Ashton Gate.

Gabriel Ibitoye crossed after 27 minutes to put the home side ahead, with James Williams adding the extras followed by a penalty on the half hour to establish a 10-0 lead.

Greg Fisilau’s try, converted by Henry Slade, then brought Exeter right back into contention, but a second Williams penalty gave Bristol some breathing space before Luka Ivanishvili touched down in the dying seconds to make sure of the win.

Heavy rain and strong winds made life difficult for both sides, and Lam said: “Conditions like that really challenge your technique and mindset.

“And you can’t go into these games without the right mindset because you have to front up physically, but that physicality has to be technically accurate, otherwise you are going to give territory and possession away and miss tackles.

“We allowed them back into the game by dropping a few balls, but our message was ‘just be accurate’.

“A lot of what we saw today was a result of the work we have done in pre-season, it was not a day to throw the ball around.”

Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter gently questioned his side’s decision not to go for the posts near the end to level the scores, instead turning down two kickable penalties inside the 22.

“Towards the end we had worked our way back into it and we had an opportunity to get something,” he said.

“And our poorest maul of the game was probably at the end there, where we probably needed a killer maul. We weren’t quite as good as we needed to be, we had to play away from it, and then we lost the ball and that last period saw us make the kind of errors you just can’t afford to in these conditions.

“I think the difference between the two teams was that we just made more errors than Bristol over the course of the game, and tactically Bristol were potentially a little smarter.”

Baxter also felt aggrieved over Bristol’s first try from Ibitoye, when it came from a penalty awarded against Ethan Roots.

He said: “I think we were unfortunate with the first try because I don’t think Ethan has done anything.

“He is leaving the maul after being told to by the referee. Bristol make an error at the back, he picks the ball up and all of a sudden we are penalised.”