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The grape-into-wine analogy that left Pat Lam smiling heading into 2021 with his Bristol Bears

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Bristol got the new calendar year in England going on Friday with their New Year’s Day Gallagher Premiership win over Newcastle, but the 29-17 success wasn’t the only thing that left Pat Lam bouncing forward into 2021 with a spring in his step. 

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The January 1 win for the Bears came despite them having to isolate all six front rowers used in their previous outing at Harlequins due to one player testing positive for Covid-19.

It was the latest twist after a challenging year which saw rugby in England suspended last March and resume with an avalanche of matches in August, and the gap between the 2019/20 season and the new 2020/21 was also short-lived between October and November. 

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Goodbye to 2020!

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      Goodbye to 2020!

      It has left all coaches in the league with a heavy workload but Bristol boss Lam, who has been in England since leaving Connacht in 2017, wasn’t inclined to look back on 2020 as his most challenging year yet.

      “It has been challenging but it’s what I love – I love the challenge,” he said with enthusiasm following a calendar year where Bristol won the European Challenge Cup and reached the semi-finals of the Premiership despite the pandemic.  

      “That is what life is. We are who we are through these challenges we go through. It’s funny, I read a really good analogy. I always love these things in life and rugby is life – and it’s not just about the players. It’s about a grape: grapes will go off after four or five days but if you press the grapes it starts the process of making wine and wine can last 50, 60, 70, 80 years.

      “And so at the moment the whole world and all of us have been pressed but if we acknowledge the process of being pressed it can bring us through. What Covid has done is it has made everyone stop, reflect, look at life, work out what is important.

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      “The fact is I love this game. The fact is I have had more time with my kids who are older, they have come back in (at home) and we have had more time, so there is a lot of positives that have still come out of this even though these difficulties. 

      “While this is challenging these are the times we grow. We grow as people. Certainly, for us, we grow as a team by all being challenged. It is challenging but you always look on the other side of it too, the positives that you can get out of it.”

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      DarstedlyDan 38 minutes ago
      New Zealanders may not understand, but in France Test rugby is the 'B movie'

      Italy have a top 14 issue too, that’s true. I doubt SA are overly pleased by that, although it’s countered somewhat by the fact they would expect to thrash them anyway, so perhaps are not that bothered.


      The BIL teams are (aside from Ireland) A/B teams - still with many A team players. I would rather the England team touring Argentina be playing the ABs than this French one.


      France could have reduced the complaints and the grounds for such if they had still picked the best team from those eligible/available. But they haven’t even done that. This, plus the playing of silly b@ggers with team selection over the three tests is just a big middle finger to the ABs and the NZ rugby public.


      One of the key reasons this is an issue is the revenue sharing one. Home teams keep the ticket revenues. If the July tours are devalued to development larks then the crowds will not show up (why go watch teams featuring names you’ve never heard of?). This costs the SH unions. The NH unions on the other hand get the advantage of bums on seats from full strength SH teams touring in November. If the NH doesn’t want to play ball by touring full strength, then pay up and share gate receipts. That would be fair, and would reduce the grounds for complaint from the south. This has been suggested, but the NH unions want their cake and eat it too. And now, apparently, we are not even allowed to complain about it?


      Finally - no one is expecting France to do things the way NZ or SA do. We oddly don’t really mind that it probably makes them less successful at RWC than they would otherwise have been. But a bit of willingness to find a solution other than “lump it, we’re French” would go a looonnng way.

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      LONG READ New Zealanders may not understand, but in France Test rugby is the 'B movie' New Zealanders may not understand, but in France Test rugby is the 'B movie'