Lam welcomes ‘learning curves’

Bears boss hopeful of bouncing back from consecutive defeats in the Premiership

BRISTOL Bears director of rugby Pat Lam has vowed to learn from the back-to-back defeats that his side have suffered ahead of today’s West derby at Gloucester Rugby in the Gallagher Premiership.

The Bears began the new season with victories over Bath, Wasps and London Irish, but have since lost to Newcastle and Exeter – the latter a 50-14 thumping, their heaviest home defeat in the professional era.

“It’s probably my fault,” boss Lam told reporters. “I said to the boys, I made some subtle changes which didn’t work for us and it forced us into a game which made it very easy for Exeter, particularly in our attack.

“The boys worked hard, probably in areas that they’re not comfortable with, that they shouldn’t have done.

“They went hard, but it certainly wasn’t the way we wanted to play, but we’ll bounce back.”

Having topped the table after those opening three wins, the Bears now sit in fourth spot with 14 points, six behind table-toppers Saracens, having played one more match than all three teams above them.

Against Exeter, Bristol were second best all over the pitch, conceding seven tries and carrying only a limited threat themselves.

England international scrum-half Harry Randall also went off with a hamstring injury and has since been ruled out for up to four months.

“The formations that we normally have were completely out of sync and, like I’ve said, that’s my fault and we’ll sort it out,” Lam, left, added.

“The last two weeks have been great learning curves for us, and certainly for myself. As I said to the boys, I love that they went hard out