Pat Lam praised full-back Ioan Lloyd as the 19-year-old starred on his return in a Bears shirt in his side’s 30-13 bonus point victory over Worcester Warriors on Saturday.
Lloyd, who made his Welsh senior international debut last weekend, shone at Ashton Gate, kicking eight points, setting up the Bears' opening try as well as making a try-saving tackle at a vital moment in the first half and Lam was certainly happy with his exploits.
“Yeah, he was class. You can see why we introduced him one year out of school with Bath here when he scored in the corner [a year ago],” Lam said after the game.
“We've managed him nicely in the sense of his development ,given him a bit of game time.
"All the senior players: Charles Piutau, Callum Sheedy, Luke Morahan, Semi (Radradra), all of these boys have helped him and as he grows it gives him confidence.
“Then going into an international set-up was outstanding and then he's with Alun Wyn Jones, (Justin) Tipuric and (Leigh) Halfpenny, learning off them.
"He came back on Wednesday, the players had a day off, he worked with the coaches and he knew he's part of our group, and he came out and you can just see he’s gone on to another level, and he’ll get better and better.”
As well as Lloyd returning to a Bristol jersey, number eight Nathan Hughes completed his comeback from injury to line-up in the starting XV and with more players set to be drifting in each week, Lam is excited for the headaches in selection he is set to have.
He said: “Well it’s exciting isn’t it? It’s exciting, the boys are doing a great job that are here.
“Those two (Nathan Hughes and Ioan Lloyd) are class, they come in, Max Lahiff, Andy (Uren) come back, you know, they're all gonna be drifting in each week, there's going to be someone coming back in.
“But it's a real credit to the group here and it’s all we want, we want players away on international rugby, and the others step up and then when everyone's back I've got some selection headaches haven’t I and I’ve got some good depth.”
Bristol secured their first win of the season and added a bonus point with three second half tries and although Lam knows it is important to accumulate the points, he admitted there is a long season ahead.
“It's big, but it's a long way to go. I think the big thing about our goal is to get back into the top four, to do that you've got to accumulate points,” Lam. explained
“We were gutted we lost three last week, we’ve picked up five here and now we move to Saints on Friday, another home game and hopefully the five points are on offer and this will be our goal.”
Bristol currently sit third in the table behind Exeter Chiefs and Newcastle Falcons.
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