Pat Lam insists Bristol Bears will be back fighting at the top table in Europe and the Premiership before long despite losing by 30 points to table-toppers Leicester Tigers on Saturday.
The Bristol director of rugby watched with a now regular sense of frustration as his side were beaten 56-26 at Welford Road in Round 24 of the 2021/22 Gallagher Premiership.
The defeat, the Bears’ 15th of the league season, sees them stay in 10th place in the standings and the club are now mathematically unable to climb any higher with two games remaining, meaning they will miss out on Champions Cup qualification next season.
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Not being in Europe’s premier cup competition will come as a significant blow to Lam, with the words ‘A Champions Cup team’ painted on the walls at the club’s £11.5m High-Performance training centre due to it being a key pillar of his vision for the West Country side.
Having lost to Sale Sharks last month in the last 16 knockout rounds of the competition, Bristol now have two weekends without a game as the quarter-finals and semi-finals of Europe are fought out.
Last weekend’s victors, Leicester, host Irish giants Leinster in arguably the biggest tie of the final eight as the best in the Premiership take on the best of the United Rugby Championship.
Discussing Leicester and the current gulf between Tigers and the Bears, Lam said: “They are the gold standard at the moment and this is their time - they are doing well and fair play to them.
“I think if this shows anything it is everyone has their day and we will get our day back.”
Lam is referring to the fact Tigers have been down in the doldrums in recent year and only Saracen’s relegation due to their points deduction for breaching the Premiership’s salary cap stopped Leicester being relegated in 2019/20.
In two years the change at Leicester under head coach Steve Borthwick has been stark.
Lam continued: “What we have to do is commit, the players need to look at the roles and jobs they need to do and the teams that do that well are the ones that succeed and are disciplined.
“Stevie [Luauta] talks about it often, ‘make sure your ambition matches your skill level’ and get those little things right and don’t get bored doing those basics.”
With the familiar soundbite of ‘taking the learnings’ wearing thin with Bristol fans, Lam was directly asked whether he felt his players were learning from their previous mistakes, his answer hinted at the cutthroat nature of professional sport.
He said: “Some players are taking the learnings.
“Some players are feeling pretty bad in the changing rooms but that is all part of the growth of the group, that is part of recruitment and retention.”
One player who ‘could hold his head high’ on Saturday was former Leicester Tigers hooker Harry Thacker who scored a stunning solo try to cap a standout individual performance in a losing effort.
Lam said: “I thought he was phenomenal right through.
“This is his hometown and he always plays well here.
“He is in good form at the moment and I think he can hold his head up high.
“He was an example of the effort put in out there but ultimately he feels down because of the margin we lost by but that doesn’t take away from the effort he put in out there.”
