Lam delighted as Bears finally overcome 'bogey team' Sale

T wasn’t a fully convincing win from Bristol Bears, but it certainly felt significant on Friday night as Pat Lam's side solved the riddle that is Sale Sharks’ suffocating defence to win 19-17 at Ashton Gate and breathe life into their title charge.

- John Evely

The same field, a year and a week earlier, was the crime scene of a rugby murder, as the Bears were battered to death 38-0 in a seismic shock of a result. Post-match, player of the match Ellis Genge confided he had rewatched the game this week and was a loud voice in training, insisting it could never happen again.

Yet, Sale arrived with a highly-effective game-plan that, for long spells of the game, crushed the creativity out of the Bears, with playmakers Tom Jordan and Harry Randall boxed in by onrushing maroon shirts. That was until the Bears broke free, scoring tries through Kalaveti Ravouvou, Joe Owen and Matias Moroni, with Jordan kicking one conversion and Jimmy Williams the second.

Tom O'Flaherty and Ernest van Rhyn touched down for Sale, with George Ford converting both and adding a penalty, but in the end, a missed drop goal from the England fly-half proved critical, and allowed the Bears to go top of the league at least overnight.

But the messaging from Bristol's beaten opponents each week is the same. This is not the same soft-bellied Bears of old. There is a defensive steeliness to the class of 2025-26, and it was on full display in this seismic clash.

Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam gave his players the target of being top of the league at the end of the evening.

Lam said: “We set out that was effectively to be a final and that we needed to win it to be top of the table as Sale are our bogey team and always seem to be up for this fixture.

“We knew Sale would be very physical and we had to stay in the fight especially when we lost Aidan Boshoff in the warm-up and then Lovejoy (Chawatama) and Zam (Louis Rees-Zammit) in the first half.