Talking points: ASM Clermont Auvergne (h) - Champions Cup

'Going after the star'

Pat Lam on the excitement of the Heineken Champions Cup: “I’m massively excited. It’s in our vision to be a team that consistently, year-on-year and forever, contests the Champions Cup.

“But I don’t want us to be a club which just gets into Europe and are happy to be in it. We have got to go after the star, go after the trophy. It is so exciting to be involved.

“Pretty much everyone who won the Challenge Cup is still here. We know as a group what it took to win that and that emphasises that if you do the work, you get the rewards, but we said after the final we will have to go up another level now.

Feeling at home

Kyle Sinckler on his ambitions at Bristol: “I’ve loved every minute being down here, testing myself and being in a different environment and I think this is only going to make me a better player.

“In terms of winning silverware, it’s been pretty crazy. We were unlucky in the Premiership semi-final and the week after, we played really well in the Challenge Cup final, and then I went off with England and won two more trophies, so it’s not been a bad couple of months. The challenge now is to try and sustain that and bring more success to the club."

'Clermont clash a good marker'

Pat Lam on challenge of Clermont: “You look at Clermont and they’re going really well in the TOP 14, sitting fourth behind La Rochelle, Toulouse and Racing 92.

“They have a lot of world-class players - I coached some of them in the Barbarians, so I know the quality.

“They’ve got to the finals and it’s their big dream to win it. To play against them is a good marker of where we are and how far we’ve come as a club.”