Pat Lam rued another Bristol Bears performance where unforced individual errors played an influential role in defeat but stopped short of blaming the individuals concerned as Clermont advanced into the quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup.
The Bears were beaten 33-26 at Ashton Gate, and four tries to two, with George Moala and Damian Penaud’s second score of the night direct results of mistakes from first Magnus Bradbury and Siva Naulago.
Having edged themselves ahead just before the break as Semi Radradra crossed over for a 20-17 lead, injuring his hamstring in the process, Lam and his coaching staff left the upper tier of the Lansdown Stand to return to the changing room.
En route he quickly heard another rumble from the crowd inside BS3 and soon learned that inexplicably Clermont had scored straight from the restart as Bradbury spilled a regulation catch with little pressure around him, and two phases later Moala crossed over.
It proved a deficit they were unable to claw back and, as they chased the game in the final 10 minutes, a speculative kick and committed chase by Penaud led to Naulago misjudging the run of the ball and as he tried to shepherd it out over the dead ball line, the French international winger dived forward to get the killer touch and leave the hosts with too much to do in the closing stages.
“You can’t dwell on it, you have to move on and get back into it,” a downcast Lam said, speaking softly in his assessment of the performance. “These sort of mistakes happen in this sport and the first person who is upset about it is the player. It was the bounce, he thought it was going to bounce out, it didn’t bounce.
“I haven’t seen Magnus’ but we’re all human and we make mistakes. The people who hurt the most are the people who make it and you’ve just got to get up and go (again). With 10 minutes to go, we were two scores down and we worked our way back to one score, we had an opportunity and thought we could score at the end to go into extra time.
“A lot of character from the boys to not give up but it certainly makes it harder with those errors.
“We talked before the game, with the conditions and everything, this was about playing down the right end. We did some very good things but we coughed up ball too easily at times.
“But I was proud of the boys. 10 minutes to go, we've got to just hang in there and we got back within a try, thought we scored, and then tried to get in there at the end. So I'm proud of the effort but we've only got ourselves to blame for those soft tries we conceded.”
Bristol’s exit from the competition ends all realistic hope of silverware in what is increasingly proving to be an underwhelming 2023/24 season. They can mathematically still make the Premiership play-offs but need to be perfect in their final three games, against Sale, Exeter Chiefs and Gloucester, and hope several sides above them slip up down the home straight.
They may have to attempt that without the try-scoring talent of Radradra who immediately felt his hamstring as he appeared on Jimmy Williams’ shoulder to half-sprint/half-hobble over from 30 yards for the Bears second and final try of the night as they were unable to breach the Clermont defence in the second half.
Lam admits it’s far too soon to properly assess the extent of the Fijian’s injury, who left the stadium in a pair of welling boots, and the Bears do now have a two-week break before the visit of Sale to Ashton Gate.
“It's a hamstring,” Lam added. “Fair play to him, he did it about 30 metres out and he could have stopped but he still worked his way to the tryline to get the points. It's a big loss losing Semi, he's been in very good form but we'll hopefully see him before the end of the season.”
