A win in Brive on Friday night could provide Bristol Bears with a clear route to the latter stages of the European Challenge Cup says Pat Lam.
Having outlined their ambition of wanting to win the second tier European competition this season, Bristol got their campaign off to a flying start on Saturday with a 59-21 bomus point victory over Italian Pro14 side Zebre at Ashton Gate.
But Bears director of rugby Pat Lam is demanding bigger and better from his side his week as they travel to France to take on Top 14 newboys Brive on Friday night.
Brive kicked off their return to European rugby with an 11-27 win over Stade Francais, so victory on Friday night would put the Bears in the driving seat to qualify as group winners.
Lam said: “This is a massive game because all teams are fighting on two fronts [league and Europe].
“I think us getting a win over there is huge for our ambition of not only winning the group, but looking at all the other groups, we want that home quarter-final and semi-final.”
The four teams to top the pools with the highest match point totals from the group stages will secure home quarter-finals.
Lam continued: “This is massive because the following game in this competition will be Stade Francais at home, if we can go into that game hopefully off the back of 10 points it will be huge.”
Despite a big win over Zebre in the opening game Lam says his side have stepped up their preparations this week after a disappointing second half which saw Ed Holmes and James Dun sin-binned before referee Ludovic Cayre awarded a penalty try as the visiting scrum rumbled forward.
Lam said: “We understand the goal we have set and the preparation has been a lot better.
“I made no secret of the fact of was not happy with last week but I have been so pleased with their reaction.
“The training this week has been superb, the guys have been on the money as far as attitude goes.
“Importantly, as far as coaches are involved, the senior players have really taken control to make sure the right attitude has been there in every session his week; so we are building nicely and that is going to give us every chance of having a better performance than we did last week and set us up nicely for this competition.”
Lam emphasised his selection will reflect the club's serious approach to the competition this season.
He said: “We will be strong, minus injuries and minus niggles.
“We have had a six day turn around but the team I will name, people will see, is a very strong one.
“If some players aren’t there it is because of the turn around, niggles or injuries.”
Nathan Hughes and John Afoa look likely to miss the game as they continue to recover from injuries sustained in the 17-20 win over Exeter Chiefs, but flanker Steven Luatua could make an early return after taking a blow to the hip in the same game.
Bristol Live will be covering the Bears European Challenge Cup game against Brive live from the Stade Amédée-Domenech on Friday night, join us for all the build-up to the game and the big match coverage.
