Pat Lam never stopped ‘believing’ Bristol Bears would beat Leicester Tigers
Pat Lam and the Bristol Bears players.
Bristol Bears director of rugby Pat Lam said he was always confident his players would secure the result after they claimed a 21-19 come-from-behind victory over Leicester Tigers at Welford Road on Saturday.
The Tigers were desperate for victory as they tried to keep their play-off hopes alive and were on course to achieving that goal after holding a 19-0 lead by the 64th minute.
However, the visitors launched a stunning fightback and clinched their win courtesy of a last-gasp try from Magnus Bradbury, after Leicester full-back Mike Brown was red carded in the 71st minute.
Still in fourth spot on the table
The victory means Bristol remain in fourth position in the Premiership standings while 2022 champions Leicester are in eighth spot.
“I know we can score four or five tries in the space of 10 to 15 minutes, so I was looking at the clock and said: ‘Keep going, keep believing’,” said Lam.
“That’s why at half-time I was showing them there was plenty of opportunity here and they were doing exactly what we’re doing – let’s just make sure we do what we’ve got to do.
“We just weren’t quite accurate and a couple of guys weren’t in the right places (in the first half), so they knew that if we don’t try and make something happen, just be in a position and someone will make a line break and then get to them.
“Then just keep going and try and keep the tempo up because we could see they were starting to get heavy on their feet, with their big forwards, as well.”
The Tigers raced into the lead courtesy of a brace of tries from Ollie Hassell-Collins and a five-poiter from Francois Van Wyk while Handre Pollard added two conversion.
Max Lahiff then scored a try for the Bears, which James Williams converted, before the game’s complexion changed when Brown received a second yellow card for a head-on-head collision with Benhard Janse Van Rensburg.
Another Lahiff five-pointer and Bradbury’s late try, which were both converted by AJ MacGinty then sealed the visitors’ dramatic win
Leicester head coach Dan McKellar said: “Ultimately, the second card for Brownie hurt us – 19-7 up, we were well in control of that game.
“(We had) a line-out in the A-zone, instead it was a penalty against you, you go down to 14 and they’re a tough team to defend against with 14.
“I thought we were outstanding today for 70-odd minutes and to be honest I can’t believe I’m sitting here as a losing coach.
‘Need to reflect on the year’
“We just need to reflect on the whole year; that’s another close loss at home when you think of Sale, Harlequins, Gloucester and now Bristol.
“You win those games – those tight ones at home – and all of a sudden, you’re sitting pretty in the top four.
“There’s a lot of learnings to come out of this year, but at the right time we’ll look at that and review it and make sure we’re better for it.”