At the end of 2023, Pat Lam’s circus of great entertainers briefly left Bristol. Now the show has returned with a bang. After a brief identity crisis, the Bears have rediscovered themselves on and off the pitch to lead the way in the fifth round of Premiership fixtures.
“We used to run to the theme tune from The Greatest Showman,” Bristol Chief Operating Officer Tom Tainton told Mail Sport. “That was very Beren, wasn’t it?”
Indeed it was. And perhaps now is the time for Bristol to bring back the classic from the hit Hugh Jackman film, because as evidenced by the first four rounds of the 2024-2025 English rugby season, it is Bristol who will be serving up the Premiership’s biggest show. .
Last Saturday at Exeter’s Sandy Park, Lam’s side scored 28 points in the final 14 minutes to overturn a 20-point deficit and complete a remarkable comeback. Red-hot wing Gabriel Ibitoye scored a nine-minute hat-trick.
It encapsulated the fearless attacking approach that is now back in Bristol’s DNA. With three wins and a loss – with a bonus point of four tries in each match – the Bears sit top of the table so far this season and host second-placed Saracens at Ashton Gate on Saturday.
Bristol are flying in the Gallagher Premiership and have won three of their first four matches
Director of rugby Pat Lam (pictured) has his Bears side back at their best
Bristol winger Gabriel Obitoye (pictured) scored a stunning nine-minute hat-trick last weekend
“Entertainment is absolutely fundamental to everything we do in Bristol,” says Tainton. ‘We try to play an extensive game with a team of young people. We want people to come to our games and see Bristol as a team that is successful and plays rugby the right way, but also as a pioneer off the field.
‘One of the values of Bristol Sport is being an outsider. When we discuss new ideas, we talk about whether they are quirky or innovative. Is it something no one else has done? Thanks to Pat, because we couldn’t work on that mantra if what we were serving on the court was a kickfest.
“We want people to watch and think, ‘Wow, this is exciting.’ We are here to win trophies and we want to inspire our community with that.
“But it is also our intention to grow the game by encouraging young people. It’s critical. If we wake up in five years’ time and have gone through the same routine that rugby has always done, we will have missed a huge opportunity.
“I’d like to think we’re everyone’s second favorite team because we try to do things differently.”
Bristol has achieved that in this campaign. Their adventurous approach is not necessarily new. But it has been reborn after a period around the turn of the year when director of rugby Lam, in his own words, changed course. The Bears have returned to form since March and have reaped the rewards.
Bristol, with all their attacking flair, are becoming the ‘favourite second team’ of rugby followers
They can cause problems anywhere and scored the most tries in the league last season
“I moved away from myself,” Lam confesses. “The way a team plays comes down to the coach. The way I want to play is to attack. When it’s on, it’s on. I want my team to be fearless. Having been at this club for a while and especially losing the 2021 semi-final to Harlequins, you take a look at things. I started to wonder if we should play differently.
‘Over the last two years there have been a lot of statistics showing that if you kick more, you win more matches. We are seduced by that.
‘I was recently looking back at our game against Exeter last Christmas. It was terrible. We had a full house and the amount of kicking we did was ridiculous. In January we were beaten by Connacht and they played like us.
‘That was the biggest disappointment. We simplified things and went back to what we do best: being fearless.”
Now we may be seeing Bristol 2.0. In the break before the 2024 Six Nations, Lam reset the machine. Once the international action concluded, the Bears came out and defeated eventual champions Northampton 62-8. From then on they went on a remarkable run, narrowly missing out on a play-off spot.
“Last season we scored the most tries in the Premier League,” says Lam. ‘But we only played well for half the season. If your team has the most tries but isn’t the top scorer, that’s huge. That’s the kind of statistic I strive for.
‘I wouldn’t be here 100 percent if I didn’t believe that we could win trophies this way. We’ve had a lot of challenges in the last two years, but we got through them.
‘This is the way forward for us. We are in a business that needs an entertainment factor. I get approached by a lot of people who tell me they love the way we play. We want to win, but we want to do it in a fun way and that will also help with our responsibility to grow the game.
Bristol have gone from strength to strength after narrowly missing out on the play-offs last season
Lam believes his tough side is fully capable of going on and winning trophies
‘Everyone at this club believes in how we play. Sometimes you have to try different things and we did that, but that wasn’t us and it reinforced our belief that this is the right way to go.”
Bristol’s poor results at the turn of the year – combined with the abandonment of their traditional modus operandi – left Lam’s position in jeopardy.
Billionaire owner Steve Lansdown was not happy with the product. But since the match against Northampton, everything has been rosy in the Bristol garden.
This summer, Lam reassembled his squad. It is now younger and smaller. Bristol have the option to spend up to the Premier League salary cap, but are choosing not to do so in a bid to be more financially stable. It is recognized that they cannot rely on Lansdown’s money forever.
Bristol’s recruitment goes hand in hand with their playing style. Bristol’s squad contains fewer superstars than in previous years, but they are always interested in signing a big name who could put more bums on the seats. They expressed interest in Harlequins’ English fly-half Marcus Smith.
Lam’s men’s team was visited this week by Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty, who brought his winning mentality to the players. Both teams from Bristol train next to each other.
Bristol’s players and staff all eat together in their state-of-the-art training facility, a stone’s throw from the base of Bristol City, the champion football club. Both clubs fall under the banner of the Bristol Sport Group, owned by Lansdown. Just a few weeks ago, Lam dined with City boss Liam Manning.
All food served at Bristol’s rugby base comes from within a five-mile radius. On the day Mail Sport visited, roasted cod fillet and oysters were on the menu. Bristol’s players can relax in their team room with a hammock and table tennis and pool tables. The club’s bold rugby and marketing strategies appear to be working.
Olympic champion Adam Peaty visited Bristol’s training ground earlier this week
He showed off one of his Olympic gold medals and gave a speech to the players in the state-of-the-art facilities
As the sport battles for its place in the British sporting landscape, attendance in Bristol is rising and attracting a younger, more diverse audience. In May they will take a Premiership match to Wales for the first time, even if it is an ‘outsider’ idea. Bristol – who were renamed the Bears in 2018 – have already sold 20,000 tickets for that match at the Principality Stadium.
“It could be something special and a great showcase for the Premier League,” says Tainton, who has drawn inspiration for Bristol’s travel direction from trips to the United States to watch Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball. “We want to make it the biggest day Bristol has ever had in terms of entertainment. If we can come up with a credible business idea, we want to explore it. It could be abroad, but we haven’t exhausted our own field yet.’
Bristol are now firmly back on track and judging by their exciting season so far, the future looks anything but dull. The show continues on Saturday against Saracens in what will be an intriguing clash of playing styles. Whatever happens, Bristol is no longer for change.