Pat Lam praised the performances of four of Bristol Bears’ young players who stepped up to senior rugby from the club’s champion U18s side on Friday night.
The Bears' director of rugby said fly-half Sam Worsley, number eight Ed Harvey, backrower Aaron Tull and centre Joe Jenkins, who all featured in the 22-17 defeat to Brive out in France, have great futures ahead of them.
All four teenagers were prominent figures in Bristol Bears’ 2021/22 national academy title winning U18 squad and have been training with the first team this summer.
However, Lam also confirmed a much more experienced side, full of senior players, will take the field at Rodney Parade on Friday night to face United Rugby Championship side the Dragons in the club’s second pre-season match of the summer.
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Speaking after the defeat to Brive, an upbeat Lam said: “It was good to get out there, we obviously brought a younger squad with us, we had four of our successful U18s side out there and I thought they all acquitted themselves really well; Sam Worsley, Ed Harvey, Aaron Tull and Joe Jenkins. It was great to see them out there; they were nervous but the boys looked after them.
“A lot of our academy boys got game time but what I was most pleased about is all our guys who have trained all pre-season got a hit out in the Bears jersey.
He continued: “Jake Heenan hit the nail on the head, he said: ‘Well done and these guys can be very proud of their efforts.”
“They have got some great futures at the Bears and that is our whole vision to be bringing these homegrown boys through.
“There is a real quality group coming through and I am excited by it.”
Closer to home, Bristol Bears’ new U18s cohort kicked off their Academy U18 League campaign with a 24-16 bonus-point victory over Bath at Shaftesbury Park. A Tom Ormsby double and tries from Archie Prewett and Dan Williams ensured a bonus-point win.
Meanwhile Bears prop Louie Trevett featured for England U18s out in South Africa in a 40-24 defeat.
Over in Saint-Affrique, Bristol had to fight back from going 19-0 down after tries from centre Nico Lee, number eight Abraham Papali’i and full-back Thomas Laranjeria.
After the break the Bears hit back through Jones, Tom Whiteley and Luke Morahan.
Reflecting on the performance, Lam said: “It was three tries each. We scored three excellent tries off the training paddock, unfortunately, we lost three lineouts and missed a couple of tackles for their tries.
“There was a lot of character for the boys to come back when we were 19-0 down, to come back to 19-17, but like always there are plenty of things to work on.
He added: “It was a great opportunity to get a hit out as we move into next week and a lot of the other senior boys will be back next week as we continue to build to the Bath game.”
BristolLive will be live blogging Friday night’s pre-season fixture against the Dragons at Rodney Parade as well as the final friendly of summer away at the Scarlets the following week (September 2).
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