Former Scotland assistant Lam signs new Bristol deal

Bristol head coach Pat Lam has signed a new four-year contract with the Gallagher Premiership club.

New Zealander Lam, who joined Bristol in June 2017, will remain at Ashton Gate on a deal until 2023 and will see his title change to director of rugby.

Club owner Stephen Lansdown said: “Pat Lam has reinvigorated this club and given us a clear purpose and direction for the future. He has created an environment and team spirit that the whole city has bought into.”

Lam, born in Auckland, captained New Zealand School boys asap layer before representing Samoa in three World Cup sand moved to England in 1997 to join Newcastle Falcons, for whom he had two spells.

He spent three years at Northampton before moving into coaching as an assistant with Scotland at the 2003 World Cup and spent four years as head coach at Auckland.

After joining in 2013, Lam led Irish side Connacht to the 2016 Guinness Pro12 title before joining Bristol, who he guided to promotion and then a ninth-placed finish in the top flight.

“I’m proud to commit my future to Bristol and it was an easy decision,” Lam said. “We’ve set out a plan to bring a Premiership trophy to Ashton Gate and we’re at the start of that journey.”

Meanwhile, Leicester coach Geordan Murphy has been charged by the RFU with two counts of abusing a match official in the Tigers’ 32-31 defeat by Bath.

Murphy will appear before a disciplinary panel on 29 May. The first charge Murphy faces relates to verbal abuse of a match official or, alternatively, failure to respect the authority of a match official. The second is for failure to respect the authority of match officials.