As the old cliché goes, form is temporary but class is permanent and on Friday night the ‘Bears’ Way’ - a rugby philosophy that had been constructed from the wreckage of serial underachievement and the trauma of forced migration away from a spiritual home - finally reasserted itself again in the most forceful of fashions.
As a fusion of all-court game play, collaborative effort and a sprinkling of superstar magic it is an approach to rugby union that was designed to inspire a local community and get neutral observers purring. Northampton Saints may have been weakened by absences but this is a side that were third in the Premiership and who score points for fun, so to see them so utterly dismantled by a rampant Bristol side was bordering on the absurd.
There were many, many things to like about Friday night and the way in which the Gate was rocking on the final whistle says as much about the frustration of an inconsistent season as to the rugby poetry that had just been witnessed.
Whisper it quietly. No. Shout it loudly. This was the 80-minute performance that we have all been waiting for since we thought we were about to get one in June 2021. It has been a long time coming but the difference here was that once we got ahead we didn’t let go with the record-breaking league victory as much about the defensive platform as it was about the sensational attacking play.
Forget man of the match. It was men of the match. Every single one of them. From Max Lahiff, who has added some filth to his athleticism, to Fitz Harding whose pretty boy face masks a rig of granite; and from Harry Randall with his electric feet that could solve the energy crisis in one fowl swoop, to King Charles himself who surveyed all the turf that he owned and ruled accordingly. They were all masters of the Ashton Gate Universe.
Post-match, Pat Lam looked like a man who needed that performance and credit to him for sticking to his guns under a fair amount of critical artillery. He joked about "learnings" and downplayed the role of his marquees as simply essential parts of a wider whole.
It was like listening to the preacher of old and I for one was lapping up his sermon. Momentum is now with us and who knows where it might lead. Up the Bears!
You can listen to Bears Beyond the Gate on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Spotify and Buzzsprout
