Pat Lam admitted he was disappointed with number of errors in his side produced in the 39-15 defeat at La Rochelle to exit the European Challenge Cup quarter-final.
All week the Bristol Bears head coach had talked about the mentality needed to win knock out rugby but on this occasion his side failed to show it.
La Rochelle scored four tries in the opening half and despite a brave showing in the second period from the away side, it was a convincing defeat from a very strong French side.
Any comeback from the 19 point deficit at half time would have been of the Lazarus type.
“Look, La Rochelle are a quality side and when their big players get rumbling, they’re a hard side to stop. Their defence was excellent and their transition from our turnover to their field position was key for them," said Lam.
However, Bristol did cause their own problems in the opening half of the match and turned numerous ball over as they faltered in the set piece and at the breakdown, which Lam said was a major reason for the defeat.
“What didn’t help was the amount of ball we turned over if you do that over here, you’re in trouble. We didn’t control the ball and a quality side beat us on the day”.
The French side showed power and dominance throughout the game, especially in that opening period and Bristol struggled to deal with the sheer ferocity of the home side.
“You have to look at La Rochelle and the power they have and the crowd the behind them, that made it very difficult for us. But what also didn’t help was the breakdown in the first-half, it wasn’t very good and that cost us.
“We hardly had the ball in their 22 in the first 30 minutes, whereas they spent all of their time in ours.”
But ever positive Lam did have some encouraging words about the performance and believes his side will learn from this defeat and will use it to help the progression of the team.
“Things got better in the second-half and we kept some more of the ball and we showed a lot of character throughout that game.
“There were some good moments in there and some good learning for some young guys as well. These are all things that will help us grow and teach us things and get us to be where we want to be.”
Bristol now move in to the final stage of the season, with Premiership survival needing to be secured.
The Bears now travel to Twickenham in ‘The Clash’ next weekend, where they face west-country rivals, Bath Rugby, and Lam was keen to move forward from today’s defeat.
“We move on now and we have the Premiership to finish and we have five big games left starting with Bath at Twickenham and we couldn’t ask for a bigger game so the excitement should help us. We will recover now and get ready to go”.
