Pat Lam rolled back the years with his selection for Friday night’s 29-28 win over Gloucester Rugby and the results were striking.
Of the 15 starters at Ashton Gate, 13 of them were at the club in Lam’s second season as director of rugby at Bristol and the club’s first campaign back in the Gallagher Premiership having won the RFU Championship in 2017/18.
Three years later, after a season full of set-backs and disappointments, Lam reverted to his tried and tested and got the result that has been alluding them. Just emerging star Fitz Harding at number eight, and Munster-bound Antoine Frisch who joined the club in the summer of 2021, were new additions.
