Bristol boy Joe's done with clapping Exeter

LIONHEART lock Joe Joyce believes Bristol Bears’ multi-million-pound training ground investment has left the squad with nowhere to hide in their quest for domestic and European domination.

- NEALE HARVEY

Joyce, dubbed the ‘King of the Mead’ on account of his Bristolian roots in Southmead, has benefitted from the new training facilities at Abbots Leigh to the extent that he is now one of the first names on Pat Lam’s team sheet, often outperforming some of world’s finest second rows.

With last week’s convincing (20-7) win at Exeter establishing clear water for Bristol at the top of the Premiership and a last 16 Champions Cup spot likely, Joyce believes his side can usurp last season’s double winners as the West’s latest wannabes continue their rise.

Joyce, 26, told The Rugby Paper: “There’s a bit of mutual respect going on with Exeter and you can see what they’ve done in the last ten years since beating us in that 2010 Championship final. As a West Country rugby man, you can be quite proud of what they’ve done.

“In this part of the world to have achieved what they’ve done is brilliant, but we want to take over now.

“We’ve clapped them for a while but we want to fly that flag now and since we lost to Wasps at the start of the season, we’ve won every league game and haven’t looked back.