Pat Lam puts Bristol win over Northampton down to 'pure guts'

Bristol Bears director of rugby Pat Lam hailed the guts shown by his side as they came from behind to claim a 33-27 win over Northampton Saints at cinch Stadium.

Despite trailing 19-8 in the first half, Bears were able to come from behind to secure a bonus-point success, repelling some late Saints charges to make it two wins from two this season.

Lam was understandably delighted at the way his team came through a tough test.

He said: “I am very proud of the team.

“Once again, the second week in a row, we played as a team.

“Saints came out firing, we had to repel them a couple of times and they scored a couple of good tries but there was a lot of guts from us, particularly when we were down to 14 men with Gabriel Ibitoye in the sin bin.

Steve Borthwick previews the World Cup semifinal showdown between England and South Africa

Steve Borthwick previews the World Cup semifinal showdown between England and South Africa

“We just kept them out and worked our way back into the game.

“The messaging from the players at half-time, and even after they scored out of nothing from the charge down when we were attacking early in the second half, was all so calm.

“In the end it was just pure guts and keeping to our systems.

“(Defence coach) Jordan Crane has put a lot of work defending from our try-line and they stuck to it and we got the bonus-point win so I am very pleased.”

Two tries from Tom Seabrook and another from Tom Pearson allowed Saints to build a lead before the break.

However Magnus Bradbury notched his second try shortly before half-time as Bears got back to within a point.

Tommy Freeman wrapped up the bonus point for the home side but from there, Bristol seized control, Max Lahiff and Harry Thacker helping them pull clear, much to the frustration of Saints director of rugby Phil Dowson.

He said: “It was very disappointing.

“I thought for the first 38 minutes of the game, we looked very good, we looked strong and it was 19-11 just before half-time and we conceded a score that changed the whole complexion of the first half.

“It gave them a lot of energy and in the second half, we never really got into our stride.

“We gave away a lot of penalties and a yellow card clearly didn’t help either so Bristol came back into the game.

“There’s no lack of effort and we tried to push on in the second half but we just couldn’t get the momentum back after the end of the first half and it took us too long.

“In the last five minutes we had an opportunity but we’re leaving it too late, as we did last week.

“We tried to train to cover some of those injuries and of course they are disruptive, but we’ve got a very capable squad and a very capable group of players to deal with that.”