Is Pat a Lam to the slaughter at Bristol Bears? Not quite
It’s not an official law of rugby, but as a rule of thumb you should not score 41 points and still lose a game. And that’s exactly what Bristol Bears did against Gloucester last Friday in round two of the Premiership.
Sure, defence was optional for both teams in the West Country derby that finished 41-44 to the away side but for Bristol it will be seen as an opportunity missed to silence some of their increasingly worried fans.
In their opening two Premiership matches this season they’ve played the two teams who finished below them last term – Newcastle Falcons and Gloucester.
And while they’re one win from two in those matches the scoreline in the North East flattered them and they were undone at home in the derby.
But it doesn’t get any easier for head coach Pat Lam and his team, with matches away to Bath and Exeter and home to Saracens and Northampton before the Autumn Internationals can come to their rescue.
Pat Lam to the slaughter?
It is completely plausible, then, that the Bears head into the first break of the season with just one win in six, against the relegation play-off favourites.
So is Bristol’s coach going to be a Lam to the slaughter? Well, not quite. Like in Roald Dahl’s grisly short story, there might be the odd rugby skeleton to hide but there’s no catastrophe at the dinner table.
On the administrative side Lam signed a deal in 2021 – when his stock was extremely high – that would see him remain at the club until 2028. The New Zealand-born former Samoa international will be expensive to release. It’s as simple as that.
But on the playing side he has led the team through adversity. Not only has he seen the club promoted to the Premiership but he has won a title with them – the Challenge Cup – and got them out of a rut last season to qualify for the Champions Cup this year.
He has credit in the bank and clearly has the buy-in of the players, which is something other, newer, coaches would need to build from scratch.
It is not perfect down at Ashton Gate, and they’re looking a little rocked by being beaten by one of the whipping boys of last season, but they’ll bounce back eventually, even if they do endure a run of four defeats between now and November.
Cherry on the cake
Bristol’s inability to suffocate Gloucester at the weekend exposed their frailties, but it also showed that a new, expansive, style of play could suit the Cherry and Whites.
Their fans have long suffered from bouts of underachievement, and one performance does not cure their seemingly terminal subpar existence, but the signs they showed on Friday were extremely positive.
This weekend they take on a depleted Sale Sharks side, who are without the likes of George Ford.
Last season George Skivington’s men, who early on neglected the league only to fail in qualifying for the Champions Cup, won only two away games. They could match that feat with a win in the North.
Gloucester will want to set mini targets, such as winning more than the measly five matches they managed last year, and then grow from there.
But the way they have played against Saracens – even in a losing effort – and Bristol suggests they’ll challenge everybody.
Post-Sale, they take on Bath at Kingsholm before closing the block ahead of international rugby’s return with games away to Leicester and home to Newcaste.
It is too early to see whether they’ve turned the corner, but the new style should keep the fans happy… for now.
Former England Sevens captain Ollie Phillips is the founder of Optimist Performance. Follow Ollie @OlliePhillips11