Bristol show 'improvement' despite cup exit - Lam
Bristol Bears have shown "huge improvement" during the Champions Cup according to boss Pat Lam, despite their last-gasp defeat by Clermont Auvergne sending them out of all European competitions this season.
The Bears won only one of their four group games in the competition - against Benetton - to finish bottom of Pool 2 and miss out on the knock-out phase, and also a spot in the Challenge Cup last 16.
Lam said the high standard of the matches will stand his side in good stead going into the final eight games of the Premiership later this spring, where they currently sit second in the table.
"I've seen huge improvement from them [young players] but particularly the team," director of rugby Lam told BBC Radio Bristol.
"The level of intensity that we played these games is another level and that's certainly going to help us as we get into the run-in of the Premiership."
Bristol have been hit by a raft of injuries in recent weeks, with full-back Max Malins, fly-half AJ MacGinty and winger Gabriel Ibitoye among those out.
Lam rotated his squad heavily in the Champions Cup, with former academy winger Deago Bailey making his European debut, and 21-year-old centre Joe Jenkins and lock Joe Owen, 23, playing in three of the four matches.
"The real difficulty is that all of our injuries happened before Europe, big injuries, we weren't at full strength. But what a wonderful experience for our group," Lam said.
"You look at Deago Bailey, Joe Jenkins, Joe Owen, James Dun, [George] Kloska - these boys playing in this is a huge difference, when you think that Jenkins and Bailey playing in Shaftesbury Park last week for Dings [Crusaders] and now they step into this."
Bristol return to Premiership action on Sunday with a match against bottom of the table Newcastle Falcons, before the league takes a two-month break for the Six Nations.
The Bears are six points behind leaders Bath in second, with Saracens and Leicester Tigers one and two points behind them.
Lam added the match was a chance for Bristol to "cement" second place going into the season conclusion.
"When you consider we started in eighth place this time last year and came home strong [to finish fifth,] if we can do the same - or, if not, better - by starting in second place it will hold us in great stead to try and get into play-off rugby and hopefully the finals," he said.
