Lam has new plans for Bristol’s pre-season
PAT Lam has revealed that Bristol Bears will undertake a completely revamped preseason ahead of 2022/23 – admitting mistakes were made last summer.
After a disappointing campaign in 2021/22, going from finishing top of the table the season before to tenth now, Bristol’s rugby director accepts that his side came into the current Premiership season undercooked.
Having gone through a club-wide review in recent weeks, Lam has confirmed that the Bears will play three competitive pre-season games in the summer, facing Top 14 side Brive in France first before back-toback Friday night games away at United Rugby Championship sides the Dragons and Scarlets.
The Premiership season will then kick off on Friday, September 9.
Lam said: “I have started with myself, looking at everything we have done. We always say we learn more from losing than winning, and it is true. Adversity reveals so much.
“Straight away, our pre-season is locked and loaded. We have got a good break planned for everybody, we are back in on July 4.
“We have got three big pre-season games lined up to get ready for the season. That was probably an issue from last season because we didn’t hit the ground running compared to previous seasons.
“That is just one example of a change we are making.”
Last season Bristol played one internal 15v15 game and a behindclosed-doors match with Hartpury before starting the Premiership season with back-to-back defeats to
Saracens and Wasps, then earning a fortunate derby victory at home to Bath – who ultimately proved to be even worse than the Bears – only to lose against both Harlequins and Newcastle to have a record of 1-4 after the first five rounds.
Lam explained how he has been tapping into the expertise of his coaching staff to come up with a new blueprint of how to prepare the side for next season.
“When the players had a week off last month, the coaches had a great workshop looking at where we are at and areas to improve,” Lam said.
“I made them all head coaches and asked them to plan the preseason and do a presentation themselves and all of them were different, but they all had some great stuff. It has been an outstanding time for us to reflect, regroup and I am excited about what we are going to put in place going forward.”
■ Premiership Rugby chief executive Simon Massie-Taylor has insisted promotion and relegation will return to the top flight.
Championship winners Ealing were denied a place in the Premiership next season after their ground failed to meet capacity requirements. But Massie-Taylor said the league is still committed to expanding the top tier from 13 to 14 teams, after which promotion and relegation will return.
He said: “The expectation is that there’ll be promotion next season, then the agreement is promotion and relegation after that.”