Passionate Bristolian Joe Joyce paid tribute to the impact Steve Lansdown and his family have had on the sporting scene in the city as he announced he will leave Bristol Bears for Connacht at the end of the 2022/23 season.
Finance billionaire Lansdown owns two of Joyce’s great sporting loves, Bristol Bears rugby club and Bristol City Football Club, along with the Bristol Flyers basketball team and women’s arms of the rugby and football organisations.
In many ways, Lansdown and Joyce have been on the same journey at Bristol Bears, Bristol Rugby before it rebranded in 2018, with the owner named as the majority stakeholder in 2012 having been financially backing the club since 2008.
Joyce, now 28, who has also played for Clifton RFC, St Mary’s, Southmead RFC and Dings Crusaders in the Bristol Combination, joined the Bristol Academy in 2012/13 from SGS Filton, making his first team debut the following season in the B&I Cup. To date the 6ft 5 in lock has made 152 competitive appearances over 10 seasons in an eventful decade for the club.
READ MORE: Rugby transfer rumours and news: Danny Cipriani U-turn? Internationals to leave Leicester Tigers
Joyce is the longest-serving player in the current Bristol squad and has been in sides promoted from the Championship twice, relegated from the Premiership once, won the European Challenge Cup and finished top of the Premiership table.
On a personal note he has won every award he is eligible for at the club’s end of season awards; so announcing the news of his departure to Lansdown was one of a series of ‘tough’ conversations, along with director of rugby Pat Lam and Chris Booy who has been club chairman since 2009.
Joyce, who is also an ardent Bristol City fan, said: “I spoke to Steve on the phone, which was another tough conversation, and I thanked him for not just what he has done for me but for what he has done for the rugby club and for Bristol City.
“Just look at our training centre," Joyce said, sat in the indoor training barn of the Bears' £11.5m High Performance Centre which the club moved into in the summer of 2020. "It is incredible the way the Lansdown family looked after us as a playing group during Covid as well.
“I owe it to the Lansdown family and to Pat to really finish well.
"There are not really words to express what the Lansdown family have done, not just on the sport side but for the community as well.
"It was another tough conversation but I felt I owed it to those people to speak to them face to face before they heard it from someone else."
Joyce's announcement comes off the back of a tough a disappointing season for the Bears on the pitch, going from top of the Premiership in 2020/21 to 10th in 2021/22, but the lock is confident his final season at the club could conclude with Bristol lifting the league trophy at Twickenham next summer.
And in the long term, he remains confident the future of his hometown club is rosy.
Joyce said: "It is not about Joe Joyce, it is about Bristol Bears and we are in such safe hands with the group we have got, the Lansdown support, the coaching staff and facilities. Everything is here.
"All the best teams in the world have dips, that was our dip last year, so we are doing everything we can to put it right.
"We always leave everything out there on the field.
Joyce added: "If we win the league next year, then it will be the perfect time for me to have a new challenge [at Connacht] ."
Bristol rugby star Ellis Genge racially abused after Leicester Tigers' Premiership title win
Bristol Bears fan favourite Joe Joyce explains why he will leave his hometown club
NRL coach addresses rumours his club are targeting signing Bristol Bears star Semi Radradra
'We all want to see Jake Polledri playing the rugby he was' - Gloucester star targeting comeback
