Leinster made us pay for mistakes says Lam

LEINSTER withstood a late Bristol fightback to seal a bonus-point victory at Ashton Gate on Friday.

Bristol boss Pat Lam admitted a high error count had been their undoing. “There are some lessons for us from tonight,” said Lam. “They’re a good team and we knew they’d be strong, but we made too many errors and the tries we conceded were sloppy.

“The boys are disappointed – we know that we can be better than that.”

Three tries in ten firsthalf minutes – from Gavin Mullin, Max Deegan and Bryan Byrne – cancelled out scores from Tom Varndell, Mat Protheroe and Bristol debutant, Sam Graham, as Noel McNamara’s side took a seven-point lead into the break.

They wasted little time in extending their advantage when play restarted, with Mullin’s second and a 47th-minute try from Ian Nagle, giving Leinster some breathing space.

Charlie Rock then saw yellow for foul play, but it didn’t halt the Leinster charge, as Peadar Timmins rounded off another longrange effort.

Billy Searle sent Jack Tovey over two minutes from time, before finding Rhodri Williams with a pinpoint cross-field kick a minute later, as the hosts reduced the deficit late on.

But they were unable to close the gap any further, despite Cathal Marsh’s late sin-binning, as Leinster saw out an impressive bonuspoint win to maintain their 100 per cent Pool record.