Lam delighted with 'real steel and guts' shown by his Bears

BRISTOL Bears boss Pat Lam hailed Saturday’s hardfought 18-14 Gallagher Prem win over Exeter Chiefs as one of the best of his tenure at the club after the injury-devastated hosts overcame losing Scotland international Tom Jordan to a 20-minute red card.

- John Evely

Bristol captain Fitz Harding offloads the ball against Exeter

Jordan was dismissed for a high challenge in the 30th minute and the hosts were further hit by failed HIAs for three-quarters Josh Carrington and Jack Bates. However they still triumphed with tries from Bill Mata and Gabriel Oghre, while Sam Worsley kicked a penalty and a conversion, with Jordan adding a penalty. Ben Hammersley and Henry Slade scored Exeter's tries, with Slade adding the extras, but a couple of late disallowed scores will haunt director of rugby Rob Baxter when they review the defeat at Ashton Gate.

Reflecting on the win against the odds, Lam said: "I've been here a long time and seen a lot games, but that effort was almost the highlight of my time here.

"In context, that group only came together to train on Thursday when we had 15 back out with injury as they were all dropping like flies. We had two nines - and one on the bench - and I certainly didn’t think we'd have all three on the field at the end.

"We had to improvise throughout and there was some real steel and guts out there as we had to play 30 minutes of that game with 14."

Exeter made a poor start with Ethan Roots fumbling the kickoff and from the resulting scrum, his side were penalised as Jordan put the hosts in front.