Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Attwood is a big part of our forward pack – Lam
in and he is flying. That is the key. You build a great relationships with each player and you base it on respect and honesty. That is what they want from me and what I want from them.
“He has put the work in and he is thriving in his strengths. When he first arrived from Bath he said he has never had to pass the ball so many times, it was just head down. But I love that against Harlequins he caught the ball off the post, and put the ball away before scoring.
Attwood’s reputation a powerhouse lock preceded him having made 24 appearances for England between 2010 and 2016, but asked whether Lam knew Attwood would be able to play the Bears’ brand of all-court attacking rugby as well as he has when he signed him from Bath, the Bristol director of rugby explained that was not the reason he brought him back to his youth club.
However it has certainly been a huge added bonus. He said: “If I am honest, there are a lot of second rows out there who can be more skilful than Dave, but what I wanted from him when I signed him, he is an England international, he is a Bristol boy born and bred and was in the academy here, but what I admired about him was his physicality around doing the hard yards.
“The props love having him behind him. They all want Dave behind them in the scrum. When props are telling you they want Dave Attwood behind them, that is the unseen stuff which I value and the team values. That is his super strength and we have added onto that fitting into the team systems so he needed to be able to pass and understand space and those are the improvements we have seen.
“He has done everything he was doing for Bath, which I admired – especially his work rate, he is a diesel engine and a big part of our forward pack, but the thing I love is he is coachable enough and open enough to develop other areas of his game which we have seen the benefit of. He is loving it.”
Attwood added: “I’m enjoying my rugby more than any time in my career, and that is a reflection of the players, coaches and everyone at the organisation.
“I have loved working with such an ambitious group and my family and I are delighted to be able to continue this journey with the Bears.”