Bristol Bears boss Pat Lam hailed two-try hero Ellis Genge after he led his team to victory over Bath in their Premiership opener on Saturday.
The Ashton Gate result saw Genge steal the show on his homecoming game but the Bears were made to work by last season’s strugglers, who came close to winning.
Joining Genge on the scoresheet was Magnus Bradbury, Luke Morahan and Will Capon, with Callum Sheedy and AJ MacGinty kicking three conversions on the day.
Late drop-goal went wide
However, Bristol almost lost the game at the death as Bath’s Piers Francis, who had already kicked 19 points, attempted a late drop-goal that went wide of the posts.
On Genge, Lam said: “He was itching to go last night, and then he had to hold back. He said a few words before the game, he wanted to go out there and get stuck into the game.
“His actions back up his talk. Ellis has come in and fitted into our culture really well.
“For the first try Ellis scored, everyone was in the right place. It was a great start with him scoring. We didn’t get many chances after that and had to guts it out.”
The director of rugby added: “There was a lot of niggles and off-the-ball stuff and that’s what’s going to happen when you don’t have a TMO. It was five tries to two and all that matters is the five points.
“What I liked was that there was no panic. We used the whole squad. We were two tries down with 10 minutes to go and the message was to stay in our game.”
There was a minute’s silence before the fixture to remember the Queen, who died on Thursday, with the national anthem then sung to pay tribute to the new King.
After an entertaining Premiership match, Bath head of rugby Johann van Graan said he was proud of his men’s effort as they showed plenty of promise in game one.
Bath gutted over loss
“I’m gutted. We came here to win and if the drop goal at the end goes a metre the other way, then it’s a different story,” said the South African.
“We said we would see improvement and we got that from the team. We conceded early and lost two men to injuries but I’m incredibly proud of the effort from the players. Apart from the result I couldn’t ask for more.
“Every game in the Premiership is close and we now have 23 to go. We have a plan we will follow.”
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