Why the winning Bristol felt compelled to compliment Steve Diamond

Pat Lam has hailed a mission accomplished as his Bristol side secured a 24-3 away win against Newcastle on Friday to open their account in the 2024/25 Gallagher Premiership. A combative and error-strewn first half at Kingston Park finished 5-3 after the visiting Bears were unable to build on an early try from James Williams.

Brett Connon knocked over a late penalty at the break after Falcons captain Callum Chick had turned down multiple kicks at the posts in favour for going for the corner. Newcastle’s resolve wilted as the game progressed, with Siva Naulago finishing spectacularly in the corner before full-back Max Malins ran in a brace, plucking the ball out of the sky from a cross-field kick from AJ MacGinty for his second.

With Bristol setting their sights on a top-four finish this season having finished fifth last campaign, director of rugby Lam celebrated the vital bonus-point win after his side were dragged into the trenches by the fired-up Falcons. He said: “You can play well or you can play poorly, what is huge is we got the five points from round one.

“We have come up to one of the hardest places in the league, now we move onto the next one. I am so pleased for Newcastle. Steve Diamond has done a great job. That was tough, you can see the difference in the side.

“No one is going to want to come up here and not everyone is going to win up here. I am so pleased we came out of it. They were committed and dragged us into an arm-wrestle. It was great to get a clean sheet, there was a lot of positive stuff from us and that was a sixth straight away win in the Premiership for us going back to last year.”

Newcastle director of rugby Diamond lamented the fact his side’s lineout malfunctioned as the game progressed and they went off script in the second half. He said: “We weren’t the same team in the second half and that’s part of the problem I’m going to have to unpick.

“I thought we were highly competitive in the first half, perhaps didn’t take our opportunities, we were on their line two or three times and we couldn’t get over. And second half it wasn’t fitness, we were just error-strewn. We just went off the plan, not through endeavour but just we couldn’t win a bloody lineout for five or six attempts so you can build on momentum.”

Diamond certainly has his work cut out, with this Newcastle’s 22nd consecutive loss in the Premiership. He added: “It’s one of those situations where winning a game for this group is uncharted waters and we’ve got to put a second half in like we did the first half and then we will be in with a shout.

“I didn’t expect that scoreline if I’m honest, I thought it would have been a lot closer than that so I’m a bit disappointed for that, certainly conceding four tries at home. But we’ve got plenty to work on.”