‘Bristol’s problem areas are fixable things’ – Pat Lam

Planet Rugby

Bristol Bears director of rugby Pat Lam feels that his team’s early-season problem areas “are all fixable things” after a poor start to the 2021/22 Premiership campaign.

Just over three months after Bristol reached the Premiership play-offs for a second successive season, they are languishing at the bottom of the Premiership table.

On zero points after two games

Back-to-back losses against Saracens and Wasps left them as the English top flight’s only team without a point.

Albeit just two games into the new term, Bristol have conceded more points than any other side and scored a solitary try.

West country rivals Bath are next up for Lam’s men in front of an anticipated 20,000-plus crowd at Ashton Gate on Friday.

They will go into battle after losing 26-9 to Saracens, then subsiding 44-8 at Wasps. In each match, Bristol did not register a point after half-time.

“When I sit back and look at both games, and just look at the outcome and the scores, it doesn’t look great,” said Bristol boss Lam.

“But when you look at the detail – and we’ve been through it as a team – we had opportunities to win.

“At this stage, what is probably hurting us the most is the amount of turnovers, our discipline and missed tackles. They are all fixable things.

“It’s fair to say there are a few players not quite on top of their game, but I feel confident that will come.

“As we found out last season, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish the season is the most important thing.”

Bristol finished four points clear of the pack following the last 22-game regular season, only to blow a 28-0 lead against play-off opponents Harlequins and lose after extra-time.

“We didn’t finish it well at all last season,” added Lam. “We were top of the league. It doesn’t mean anything. We didn’t finish it.

“What’s more difficult is if you have got a game where there are no opportunities and nothing is happening, and that’s why I am confident we are not too far away.

“Even the best players in the world in any sport have dips, and they face the same scrutiny. For all of us, our goal is to be in the (Premiership) final, and that’s a number of months away.

“We have the same honest conversations every week, whether we win or lose.

“Feedback is always based on looking at things they (players) did well in the game, and the things they would like to improve. We go through that, and that’s how I believe we have got better and got the most out of players.

“It is another game (on Friday), it is another round. We have had the upper hand on Bath, and I know that is something they want to change. It’s going to be a great occasion.

“There is a long, long way to go.”

Manu Tuilagi getting ‘back to the glory days’

Meanwhile, Sale Sharks boss Alex Sanderson praised the efforts of Manu Tuilagi but was frustrated by his side’s inability to see out a comfortable half-time lead against London Irish.

The Greater Manchester outfit were 31-14 ahead at the break but the Exiles scored 17 unanswered points in the second period to rescue a draw.

Sanderson’s men were dominant in the first half with Tuilagi very much to the fore and Sale’s director of rugby believes they should have used him more after the interval.