Premiership: Bristol’s Pat Lam says reducing the number of marquee players will affect English talent

Bristol Bears director of rugby Pat Lam believes the Premiership’s decision to reduce the number of marquee players from two to one will negatively impact the English talent pipeline going forward.

The decision comes on the back of a considerable salary cap reduction to £5million. As of 2022-2023, Premiership clubs will only be able to keep one player whose salary exceeds the cap once current contracts have expired.

Foreign players are beneficial

Lam advocates for the influence of foreign players in the system and confirmed his two influential stars, Semi Radradra and Charles Piutau, will remain with the club next season, quashing any speculation they might leave earlier.

“Both of them have been phenomenal since they’ve been here. They’ve been massive,” Lam said.

“People talk about them around the world and that puts a spotlight on the English Premiership. What they’ve done is have an impact on the guys here.

“All of those boys – Steven Luatua, John Afoa, ChrisVui as well – have had a massive impact on the guys around them and they’re English players and you’ll see them coming through.

“They get the chance to work with these guys, who help them as well. So there’s the impact on the next generation coming through and on the English qualified guys who learn off them.

“Every team has had marquee players and the purpose of them was to get the right person to not only help you on the field but also to help the competition and help those who are coming through.”

A crucial piece of individual brilliance from Radradra gave Bristol a narrow 10-9 victory in their Champions Cup last-16 first-leg clash with Sale.

“Without a doubt the try shows what he can do,” Lam said. “The team provided the opportunity for Semi to line-break and Semi reminded everybody how world class he is at those things.

“Semi’s a real trooper. You guys see those moments, but we see the other moments that he’s created. I said after the game that he would be the first to admit he wants to be better.

“Every day he works away on it (the knee injury). Semi’s one of the mentally toughest at just cracking on and he just goes through it.”

Lam also threw support behind the 20-minute red card rule, allowing teams to substitute a red carded player after serving the period with 14 men. However, he says the real issue lies with the inconsistency in refereeing decisions.

“To me the bigger issue is the consistency in the decisions to give reds,” Lam said. “That (the law trial) would help if a decision is not consistent.

“It used to be very rare that there was a red card. Red cards were for out and out foul play, punching someone or really dangerous play.

“The rule is probably a good idea with the amount of red cards that are out there at the moment. They’re very prevalent and pretty much every week someone gets a red card.”

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