There’s a lot better to come from us, says Bears boss Lam
Reports on Bristol’s victory against Worcester at Ashton Gate
PAT Lam reflected on Bristol’s win against Worcester, and said: “Ultimately, we are on track but we can get a lot better and we know that.”
The word Lam missed out was ‘back.’ The Bears are back on track because they were certainly lost at the start of the season, but having taken 10 points from last two league fixtures Bristol now have upward momentum, despite only moving from 12th to 11th in the table.
Due to the incredibly open nature of the Premiership this season, as demonstrated this weekend with Newcastle gaining a first-ever win at Sandy Park against Exeter Chiefs, 11th-placed Bristol are just six points off the top four after eight rounds, meaning despite an underperforming start to the season Lam is not wrong to claim his side remain well and truly in the hunt for honours.
But they will need to be much better than they were at Ashton Gate when they face stronger sides than Worcester.
Bristol scored four tries and restricted Worcester to crossing their try line just once, and even then only by a matter of millimetres as Noah Heward acrobatically dotted the ball down inside the corner flag while completely airborne and with Charles Piutau driving him towards the touchline. But the fluency in attack from last season is still only visible in patches.
After an early penalty from the boot of Callum Sheedy, who returned in midweek from the Wales national team to start at flyhalf, it took until the 36th minute of the match for the first try.
Toby Fricker followed up his debut Premiership try from last weekend’s win against London Irish to record a brace at Ashton
Gate. Having soaked up immense pressure from Worcester in the first quarter, including getting the rub of the green after Heward correctly had a try scrubbed off for a poor forward pass from Jamie Shillcock, Fricker struck from a set-piece move just before the break.
There was nothing sophisticated about the score, just the basics done well, which Lam said postmatch is the secret to success in this sport.
From a five-metre scrum, the ball was whipped wide through the hands with the outstanding Luke Morahan spraying a pass off his left hand to put Fricker into space to gallop over.
Lam said: “I am really pleased for Toby. We saw a lot of promise from him playing in the Welsh Premiership and that is why I brought him in.
“He got a couple of things wrong and he probably didn’t bounce out of that as well as he could have. We had a couple of honest conversations and he has put the work in and I compliment him for that. I just want him to do the simple things, it doesn’t have to be the flash stuff.
“Just make your tackles, catch high balls, run hard - because he is a physical player so use your strengths - and that is what he is doing.
“All our wingers are different some of them can do extraordinary stuff but when you do the ordinary well it can become extraordinary.”
Two minutes later, Bristol were over again, stripping Worcester of the ball in a tackle following an interception and then attacking down the blindside through Sam Jeffries, who sprinted down the left touchline like a winger to highlight his athleticism.
Worcester struck first after the break following a cataclysmic mess up from the Bears which saw Sheedy decide to run from deep with no support before shovelling a poor pass to Andy Uren, who ran backwards before having a clearance kick charged down. Fricker tidied up the ball bouncing around in his 22 but then got driven over his try-line having been put in a highly compromised position. From the five-metre scrum, Worcester went wide to score their only points of the game.
Lam said: “Our defence looked better, we have put some real work into this so it is good to see the improvement.
“It was disappointing the way we gave them field position for the scrum and then defending it we went out of system but it was a phenomenal finish in the corner and a good sign we are pushing them right to the edge and not giving away easy scores.”
Uren was immediately hooked off after the calamitous moment and his replacement, Tom Whiteley, wasted no time in making a dramatic impression with a stunning solo try. The former Saracens scrum-half snipped through a gap and then stepped Perry Humphreys like he was a statue, before racing in for a moment of rugby poetry.
With the clock ticking down, it looked as if the Bears would miss out on the attacking bonus point, but in the 73rd minute Whiteley’s quick thinking and actions provided the hosts with their fourth try of the day. Worcester were penalised for not releasing and Whiteley took a quick tap, took off and then kicked through for Fricker to chase and end up gathering and scoring in the corner.
Discussing the victory, Lam said: “This keeps our momentum going.
“In the context of the season, it is about playing well, getting the five points on offer, and in the last two weeks we have taken both of them so now we get a chance to continue to build and give guys opportunities over these next two weeks (in the Premiership Rugby Cup), strengthen our squad (with injured players returning) and there will be a lot of things we are working on.
“This is the second stage of our season and we will be ready to go when we face Saints here next in the Premiership (November 26).”
Before that Bristol face Exeter Chiefs and Worcester again, both away, in the group stages of the Premiership Rugby Cup.
Bristol: Charles Piutau (Ioan Lloyd, 75 mins); Luke Morahan, Piers O’Conor (Jack Bates, 72 mins), Alapati Leiua, Toby Fricker; Callum Sheedy, Andy Uren (Tom Whiteley, 48 mins); Jake Woolmore (Yann Thomas, 60 mins), Harry Thacker (Jake Kerr, 71 mins), Max Lahiff (Jake Armstrong, 71 mins), Dave Attwood (John Hawkins, 60 mins), Joe Joyce, Sam Jeffries, Jake Heenan (Dan Thomas, 66 mins), Fitz Harding.
Worcester: Jamie Shillcock; Perry Humphreys, Francois Venter, Ashley Beck, Noah Heward (Oli Morris, 62 mins); Fin Smith (Billy Searle, 57 mins), Will Chudley (Gareth Simpson, 57 mins); Ethan Waller (Marc Thomas, 63 mins), Scott Baldwin (Niall Annett, 49 mins), Christian Judge (Jay Tyack, 53 mins), Matt Garvey, Andrew Kitchener (Justin Clegg, 7 mins), Joe Batley, Ted Hill, Matt Kvesic (Sam Lewis, 66 mins).