Press in brief: five things we learned

With more than 25,000 supporters expected at Ashton Gate on Friday, ‘excitement’ has been a buzz-word this week, as Bristol Bears prepare to kick off their Premiership Rugby campaign against Bath on Friday.

“Excitement is the word – we’ve done a lot of work on our game, culture and leadership and we feel we’re ready to go now,” said Lam.

“The build-up has been great, and you can tell by the excitement in the club and the community,” added Afoa.

Pat Lam has this week spoken of the player’s responsibility heading into Friday night, with a club-record attendance already confirmed.

“Pat has already spoken about the responsibility the players have on Friday night, making sure we turn up in the right frame of mind and just look to play the game that we want,” said Afoa.

“It’s a huge boost for us to have that crowd, but it’s also a huge responsibility and we understand that we’ve got to go out and celebrate the work we do here every day,” said Lam.

With pre-season over, the real business gets under way imminently. Both Lam and Afoa hailed Bristol Bears’ preparation for the new season following good workouts against Scarlets and Connacht.

“It’s been one of the best pre-seasons I’ve had,” said Lam. “The boys’ attitudes have been superb.”

“We’ve had a couple of good hit outs against Hartpury, Scarlets and then Connacht last week, so everyone is in a good place,” added Afoa.

It’s been the talk of the city ever since the Gallagher Premiership fixtures were revealed, and Lam says he and his players have been blown away by the support shown ahead of his side's opening fixture of the 2018/19 campaign, with record season card sales and a club record attendance confirmed. 

“Obviously, our community is excited too, it’s hopefully going to be a sell-out and we’re looking forward to performing,” he said.

Charles Piutau has been ruled out of Friday’s game, with Lam confirming that full-back will see a specialist on the weekend to assess the extent of a shoulder injury suffered during last week’s pre-season clash with Connacht.