Lansdown – ‘Other teams miles ahead’

Bristol majority shareholder Steve Lansdown admits mistakes have been made but has promised to turn things around following relegation.

Bristol ended off their season with a 39-27 home defeat to Newcastle on Saturday. Bristol’s first season back in the top flight since 2008-09 ended with relegation after 19 losses in 22 games.

While things are looking promising for next season with the recent appointment of Pat Lam as new head coach, Lansdown admits it was a little too late.

And the billionaire admits they were well out of their depth at this level and says that the other teams were 'miles ahead' in terms of quality.

“We came up and we knew it was going to be tough, and I think we knew we were going to get some tough results we were going to have to suffer,” Lansdown told The Bristol Post.

“But we felt we would be able to win the requisite number of games and get the number of points to keep us there. We had Worcester and Newcastle in our sights when we came up – but to be perfectly honest, they are miles ahead of us. 

“Or they were miles ahead of us: I don’t think they will be when we come back, and I think that’s the point.

“We weren’t close enough to them to compete. We’ve had some great results, which showed what we can do, but we need that extra class – and I think we’ve brought that in now.

“We also need that development, we need that hunger – we need hungry young players to come through and play for us. That’s what Bristol Rugby Club has got to be about – that’s what I want to see happening.”

On the club’s failure to prepare properly for life in the top flight, Lansdown said: “We’ve got to regenerate Bristol. I think we were stuck in a time-warp – and we never actually got ourselves out of it when we came up to the Premiership.

“But we’ve been shaken up now and we are definitely out of it – we’ve got to look forward.

“We’ve got to look at every aspect of it: how we get more people into the ground, how we get more kids watching, how we get more people playing, how we get more people into our academy, how we recruit better. That process has already started. It’s a great challenge and an exciting challenge.”