Pat Lam gives his verdict on Bristol Bears' win over Connacht Rugby as pre-season comes to a close
A late try from Rich Lane secured a 38-35 victory for Bristol Bears against Irish United Rugby Championship side Connacht to sign off their pre-season programme.
The Bears ran in six tries in the behind-closed-doors game at the club’s High Performance Centre on Friday afternoon with Harry Randall scoring twice and James Williams, Ellis Genge, Benhard Janse van Rensburg and Lane all touching down to make it four wins from five games in pre-season, with the only defeat coming for a young predominantly academy side against Doncaster Knights. James Williams and AJ MacGinty both landed a pair of conversions against the Irish side.
Connacht managed to break through the Bristol defence five times though, with winger Andrew Smith scoring an early brace, before Niall Murray, Fiachna Barrett and Paul Boyle followed him across the whitewash. Fly-half Josh Ioane converted all five tries to make it a tight affair to the last whistle.
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Reflecting on the win and pre-season as a whole ahead of kicking off their Gallagher Premiership campaign away at Newcastle Falcons next Friday, director of rugby Pat Lam said: “It was a brilliant game for us. It was a really solid hit-out, physical game. We still gave away a few cheap penalties which they piggybacked off, but we can tidy those things up.
“In terms of leading into Newcastle next weekend the whole pre-season has been brilliant, we have had four games, four good wins and we played the young guys against Doncaster who did good as well. Pre-season is done now and we are pleased with how it goes and we start the Premiership and we are ready to go.
“It was our toughest pre-season game today and I knew Connacht would bring that, they brought physicality and made us work which is similar to what we are going to face against Newcastle. It was a really good test run for us.
“Everything is about Kingston Park on Friday now. We are excited and pumped but we are under no illusion how hard it is going to be up at Newcastle, it always is. Steve Diamond has had a lot of time there now and brought in his people so it is going to be a tough challenge but that is what the Premiership is about.”
Bristol Bears: 15. Rich Lane, 14. Gabriel Ibitoye, 13. Benhard Janse van Rensburg, 12. James Williams, 11. Benja Elizalde, 10. AJ MacGinty, 9. Harry Randall; 1. Ellis Genge, 2. Harry Thacker, 3. George Kloska, 4. Josh Caulfield, 5. Joe Batley, 6. James Dun, 7. Benjamin Grondona, 8. Fitz Harding (c).
Replacements: 16. Gabriel Oghre, 17. Jake Woolmore, 18. Max Lahiff, 19. Joe Owen, 20. Paddy Pearce, 21. Kieran Marmion, 22. Jack Bates, 23. Deago Bailey.
Connacht Rugby : 15. Mack Hansen, 14. Shane Jennings, 13. Piers O'Conor, 12. Hugh Gavin, 11. Andrew Smith, 10. Josh Ioane, 9. Caolin Blade, 1. Peter Dooley, 2. Dave Heffernan, 3. Sam Illo, 4. Oisin Dowling, 5. Niall Murray, 6. Josh Murphy, 7. Shamus Hurley-Langton, 8. Cian Prendergast (C)
Replacements : Denis Buckley, Eoin de Buitlear, Fiachna Barrett, Darragh Murray, David O'Connor, Paul Boyle, Conor Oliver, Sean Jansen, Ben Murphy, Sean Nuaghton, David Hawkshaw, Byron Ralston, Finn Treacy