Latest news with #AJMacGinty
Yahoo
a day ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Lam motivated to take Bristol on to a future title
Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam has insisted he has lost none of the motivation to try to take the Bears to a Premiership final next season, despite watching his side fall short in their semi-final at Bath. The Bears held a slender half-time lead over Bath but conceded four successive tries to fall out of contention as their West Country neighbours booked a place in the Twickenham final next week. Advertisement Lam, who joined Bristol in 2017 with the club then in the Championship, has taken the Bears to the play-offs three times but not yet to a final. "To get to the final was massive for us - we are disappointed but we gave it a really good go and we missed out to a quality team," Lam said. "If you look over the seven years at what we've done and what Bath have done, Bath will always get a lot of credit because they've won titles, Northampton won titles, Saracens have won titles. "I think for us to go to that next level and earn some of that respect we need to win a title, that's the next evolution of this team. Advertisement "I'm really excited by next year and what could happen." Bristol finished fourth in the table, securing their semi-final spot - and their first since 2021 when they topped the league - in the final round of the regular season with a win against Harlequins six days previously. They did so with the smallest squad in the Premiership and after missing key players such as fly-half AJ MacGinty and winger Gabriel Ibitoye for large chunks of the season. Against Bath they scored a breathtaking try which started metres from their own tryline through Kalaveti Ravouvou and was capped off by James Dun, and showcased plenty more of the quick, slick ball-handling skills that made them one of the top attacking outfits this season, and briefly stopped Bath in their tracks. Advertisement But across 80 minutes they could not match their opponents - particularly with the loss of scrum-half Harry Randall on 37 minutes to a shoulder injury and following two yellow cards. Lam, who is under contract until 2028, said they need to develop more of the strength in depth that Bath have to push on. He also pointed to the signings of versatile Scotland and Glasgow back Tom Jordan, winger Max Pepper and second row Pedro Rubiolo as additions that will bolster them in 2025-26. "We've just got to keep building that depth below so when we lose key guys they can fill that gap even better," he said. Advertisement "We've still got the smallest squad, we've got 31 players next year, 19 senior academy boys. "What we've shown is you don't have to spend to the cap - we've tidied up so much of the whole organisation, I believe we're sitting nicely now off the field and we'll build and when we do get some more funds we've got enough in our cap space to grow from there."
BBC News
a day ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Lam motivated to take Bristol on to a future title
Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam has insisted he has lost none of the motivation to try to take the Bears to a Premiership final next season, despite watching his side fall short in their semi-final at Bath. The Bears held a slender half-time lead over Bath but conceded four successive tries to fall out of contention as their West Country neighbours booked a place in the Twickenham final next who joined Bristol in 2017 with the club then in the Championship, has taken the Bears to the play-offs three times but not yet to a final."To get to the final was massive for us - we are disappointed but we gave it a really good go and we missed out to a quality team," Lam said. "If you look over the seven years at what we've done and what Bath have done, Bath will always get a lot of credit because they've won titles, Northampton won titles, Saracens have won titles. "I think for us to go to that next level and earn some of that respect we need to win a title, that's the next evolution of this team."I'm really excited by next year and what could happen." Bristol finished fourth in the table, securing their semi-final spot - and their first since 2021 when they topped the league - in the final round of the regular season with a win against Harlequins six days did so with the smallest squad in the Premiership and after missing key players such as fly-half AJ MacGinty and winger Gabriel Ibitoye for large chunks of the Bath they scored a breathtaking try which started metres from their own tryline through Kalaveti Ravouvou and was capped off by James Dun, and showcased plenty more of the quick, slick ball-handling skills that made them one of the top attacking outfits this season, and briefly stopped Bath in their across 80 minutes they could not match their opponents - particularly with the loss of scrum-half Harry Randall on 37 minutes to a shoulder injury and following two yellow cards. Lam, who is under contract until 2028, said they need to develop more of the strength in depth that Bath have to push also pointed to the signings of versatile Scotland and Glasgow back Tom Jordan, winger Max Pepper and second row Pedro Rubiolo as additions that will bolster them in 2025-26."We've just got to keep building that depth below so when we lose key guys they can fill that gap even better," he said."We've still got the smallest squad, we've got 31 players next year, 19 senior academy boys."What we've shown is you don't have to spend to the cap - we've tidied up so much of the whole organisation, I believe we're sitting nicely now off the field and we'll build and when we do get some more funds we've got enough in our cap space to grow from there."
The 42
2 days ago
- Sport
- The 42
Bath beat Bristol to seal return to Premiership final
BATH BOOKED THEIR place in a second successive English Premiership final after coming from behind to beat southwest rivals Bristol 34-20 on Friday. Regular season table-toppers Bath, who've already won the European Challenge Cup this season, were 13-6 behind at half-time, with Bristol leading through two AJ MacGinty penalties and a try from James Dun. Advertisement All Bath had to show for their efforts in the opening 40 minutes at their Recreation Ground home were two penalties from Scotland fly-half Finn Russell. But they went ahead early in the second half as Ted Hill and Joe Cokanasiga scored tries before Will Muir and Max Ojomoh crossed Bristol's line to leave the Bears with a gap they never looked like overcoming despite Bernhard Janse van Rensburg pulling a try back. Bath, beaten in last season's Premiership final by Northampton, will face either Leicester or Sale — who play on Saturday — at Twickenham on 14 June as they bid to win their first league title since 1996. – © AFP 2025
BBC News
2 days ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Premiership semi-final: Bristol lead at West Country rivals Bath
Update: Date: 13 mins Title: Penalty Content: Bath 0-3 Bristol Bristol strike first as they work the ball in from the right after a break from Noah Heward and win a penalty infront of the posts which is meat and drink for AJ MacGinty. Update: Date: 11 mins Title: Post Content: Bath 0-0 Bristol First glimpse of Bath's ability with ball in hand as the ball is worked wide right to Tom de Glanville, but he runs out of space and his hopeful chip forward is straight to AJ MacGinty who calls a mark and relieves the pressure. Update: Date: 10 mins Title: Post Content: Bath 0-0 Bristol It's already apparent that Bath do not want to allow their visitors to build up a head of steam and start working the ball around... they have taken a couple of opportunities to launch the ball into touch in midfield to reset and regroup already, the latest from Tom de Glanville. Update: Date: 7 mins Title: Post Content: Bath 0-0 Bristol Ellis Genge is a proud Bristol boy and you can see how much this means to him in his 60th appearance for the Bears. He is in the middle of everything but he also needs to keep a lid on his emotions. He's up against his potential Lions team-mate Will Stuart in the scrum tonight, with double World Cup winner Thomas du Toit on the bench for Bath. Update: Date: 19:53 BST Title: 'Really poor play from Bristol' Content: Bath 0-0 Bristol Gareth ChilcottEx-England and Bath prop on BBC Radio Bristol That is the worst possible start for Bristol. Completely out of order. Maybe it's the nerves but it was really poor play. It's silly to give away a reversal penalty in a really tight game early on. They're on the rack now. Update: Date: 5 mins Title: Post Content: Bath 0-0 Bristol Wave after wave of pressure from Bath within five metres of the Bears line, but the visitors' defence stands firm, for now... Ellis Genge is in the middle of everything and manages to hold the ball up as the hosts try to get over the line and the Bears are able to clear their lines and catch their breath. Update: Date: 3 mins Title: Post Content: Bath 0-0 Bristol Full-blooded start as Bath kicked into touch on halfway from their own 22, Bristol win the lineout and secure a penalty in midfield but now the heated Ellis Genge has talked his way into trouble with ref Christophe Ridley awarding the hosts a penalty allowing the hosts to kick towards the Bristol 22. Update: Date: 1 min Title: Kick-off Content: Bath 0-0 Bristol Away we go... the Bears get us under way, playing in white and black tonight, whereas Bath are in their familiar black, blue and white. Twickenham awaits for one of these sides... Update: Date: 19:44 BST Title: Post Content: Bath v Bristol (19:45 BST) Right, up to speed? Good... the players are on the field at the Rec, packed to the rafters, and kick-off is moments away. We've had fireworks off the pitch, let's start them on it. Update: Date: 19:44 BST Title: 'There will be lot of nerves tonight' Content: Bath v Bristol (19:45 BST) Gareth ChilcottEx-England and Bath prop on BBC Radio Bristol It's a massive game for both clubs and it's a game of contrasts. We have a brilliant game in store for us. There'll be lot of nerves tonight. Update: Date: 19:43 BST Title: Three changes for Bears Content: Bath v Bristol (19:45 BST) England prop Ellis Genge returns to the Bristol starting line-up having missed last weekend's victory over Harlequins through injury. Genge is one of three changes to Pat Lam's pack with lock James Dun and flanker Steven Luatua also back - Yann Thomas, Pedro Rubiolo and Santiago Grondona drop out - while the backline remains unchanged. Bristol boss Lam confirmed on Wednesday that Lions selection Genge and Dun had overcome knocks picked up in training while Luatua is preferred to Argentine international Grondona, who scored twice in Bristol's victory at Bath earlier this season, at blind-side. Lock Joe Batley, selected in the Premiership Team of the Season, joins Dun in the second row with Fitz Harding leading the team from open-side. The experienced AJ MacGinty starts at fly-half alongside scrum-half Harry Randall while South African Bernhard Janse van Rensburg and James Williams are the centre pairing. Wing Gabriel Ibitoye, the Premiership's joint top try-scorer this season with 13, is joined by Fijian flyer Kalaveti Ravouvou and Noah Heward in the back three. Bristol: Heward; Ravouvou, Van Rensburg, Williams, Ibitoye; MacGinty, Randall; Genge, Oghre, Kloska, Dun, Batley, Luatua, Harding (c), Mata. Replacements: Thacker, Woolmore, Lahiff, Rubiolo, Grondola, Marmion, Byrne, Bates. Update: Date: 19:42 BST Title: All change for Bath Content: Bath v Bristol (19:45 BST) Bath boss Johann van Graan unsurprisingly names an entirely different XV to the second-string team that started the 36-26 defeat at Saracens last Saturday. Guy Pepper starts at open-side flanker in place of the suspended Sam Underhill while Ted Hill makes his 50th appearance for the club at blind-side and Alfie Barbeary completes the back row at number eight with Miles Reid on the bench. Springboks prop Thomas Du Toit, named in the Premiership Team of the Season, starts on the bench for Bath with director of rugby Johann van Graan opting for England and British and Irish Lions selection Will Stuart (pictured) at tight-head. Captain Ben Spencer and Finn Russell are restored at half-back while Max Ojomoh partners Scotland international Cameron Redpath at centre and Will Muir, Joe Cokanasiga and Tom De Glanville make up the back three. Another Team of the Season pick, hooker Tom Dunn, and Beno Obano join Stuart in the front row with the established duo of Quinn Roux and Charlie Ewels making up the second row and flanker Josh Bayliss among six forwards on the bench. Bath: De Glanville; Cokanasiga, Ojomoh, Redpath, Muir; Russell, Spencer (c); Obano, Dunn, Stuart, Roux, Ewels, Hill, Pepper, Barbeary. Replacements: Annett, van Wyk, Du Toit, Molony, Reid, Carr-Smith, Donoghue, Bayliss. Update: Date: 19:40 BST Title: 'Bristol won't fear the task' Content: Bath v Bristol (19:45 BST) Sophie HurcomBBC Sport at The Rec As soon as Bristol's fourth place in the Premiership was confirmed last Saturday, director of rugby Pat Lam was speaking about the Bears' record against their neighbours Bath. Lam and Bristol will be under no illusions about the challenge they face against Bath this evening, but they definitely won't fear the task in front of them. Since Johann van Graan took over Bath in July 2022, Bristol have beaten them five out of six times they have met in the Premiership – including the double this season. That being said, Gloucester boss George Skivington said in April that beating Bath at the Rec was one of the 'biggest challenges' in European rugby at the moment. If Bristol can win tonight and book that place in the Twickenham final, it will surely go down as one of their greatest victories. Update: Date: 19:38 BST Title: Ewels wary of Bears threat Content: Bath v Bristol (19:45 BST) Bath lock Charlie Ewels is wary of the threat of Bristol, having lost twice to their west country rivals in the regular season. Bristol prevailed 36-26 at the Rec in October before running-out 36-14 winners at the Principality Stadium last month. "They're a very good team, that's what I've taken from those matches, he said. "Obviously there's an extra level as it's a derby around the fans. "We've played them a few times this season - in the cup, twice in the league. At Cardiff we played different teams against them. "They will be very well prepped, we'll be very well prepped and we'll be really looking forward to it." Ewels has emphasised his side's need to "trust the process", a similar mantra coined by his coach last month, in order for Bath to go one step further and win the Premiership on 14 June to complete an historic treble. Update: Date: 19:36 BST Title: 'Dream game' for Bears boss Content: Bath v Bristol (19:45 BST) Bristol Bears' Premiership semi-final against Bath has been described as a "dream game" by director of rugby Pat Lam. Lam's side go into tonight's match as underdogs having finished the season fourth, 14 points behind their local rivals in the regular season standings. However, a league double over Bath this season backs up Lam's notion that his side "know how to beat Bath" - a defiant claim made following his side's 52-26 victory against Harlequins which confirmed Bears' play-off spot. "We're proud of that record, but it's the next one that counts," Lam told BBC Radio Bristol. "We've never played a derby game as a semi-final and for us we've never been in a final. It is the dream game really. "There's so much interest in it. We've already picked that up from both sets of supporters. There's good banter going back and forth. "Our goal was never to just get in the top four though; this is just the first stage," Lam added. Update: Date: 19:34 BST Title: Bath boss urges side to keep discipline Content: Bath v Bristol (19:45 BST) Bath director of rugby Johann van Graan has urged his side to keep their discipline in their Premiership semi-final against Bristol on Friday. Van Graan's side finished the regular season with 72 points, 11 points clear at the top of the Premiership standings, and 14 clear of fourth-placed Bristol. But the South African is wary of the threat Bath's local rivals pose, having lost twice to the Bears in the league this season already. "This is our third semi-final we've played this season and I'll just say the usual - make sure you're disciplined, stick to what you do and make sure you perform on the day," Van Graan told BBC Radio Bristol. It has been a historic season in many ways already for Bath, having already completed a cup double by winning the Premiership Rugby Cup and European Challenge Cup - ending a drought of 17 years without a trophy. Update: Date: 19:32 BST Title: Play-off coaches on season finale Content: Bath v Bristol (19:45 BST) Chris JonesBBC rugby union correspondent English rugby's top coaches say they are determined to revel in the pressure of leading their sides into do-or-die Premiership semi-finals this weekend. "If you can't love this, then get another job," says Bath's Johann van Graan. After 18 rounds of the regular campaign, two sides will emerge from this weekend to reach the final on 14 June at a sold-out Twickenham, with Leicester hosting Sale on Saturday. In a special Rugby Union Weekly podcast, we were joined exclusively by all four of the men plotting to lead their team to Premiership glory, just days before the biggest game of their season. Pat Lam of Bristol said: "I use that word 'privilege'. When you look at the Champions League final, PSG winning 5-0, that is a team that decided to go out and enjoy themselves. "Every time I have these moments I feel just privileged to be here and feel lucky to be doing what we do." Van Graan added: "This game is not about fear. This game is about attacking it - and may the best team win. "What would the world be without sport? I'm privileged to be part of it and part of a team that wants to achieve. "And if we want to get to the next stage, we've got to get past a very good team on Friday night." Update: Date: 19:30 BST Title: Who will survive Western shootout? Content: Bath v Bristol (19:45 BST) Welcome to your weekend... boy, do we have a treat in store for you under the Friday night lights! It's the business end of the Premiership season and tonight will see the first semi-final as table-topping Bath welcome a dangerous Bristol Bears side to the Rec. A place in the Twickenham final next weekend is at stake, with Leicester and Sale set to face off on Saturday to decide who will face tonight's winners. The Rec is a perfect setting for this showdown between two free-scoring sides on what might eventually end up being a wet and windy night in the wild west. Kick-off is 15 minutes away so let's quickly bring you up to speed...
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ibitoye double fires Bristol past Harlequins to clinch playoff tie at Bath
A long way, still, from a first English title maybe, but Bristol stared down their darkest demons in the sunshine at Ashton Gate. No, no, not again, all but the most phlegmatic of a raucous crowd must have been thinking, as Harlequins threatened to overturn Bristol's early lead in all-too-familiar style, midway through the second half. Memories of that extraordinary semi-final here four years ago were at the forefront of everyone's minds, including, surely, those in blue out there on the greensward, lungs burning, minds twisting. Had they succumbed, the entire Pat Lam project might just have gone up in smoke, so yawning the flaws would have seemed. Advertisement Related: Lions match highlights on free-to-air TV this summer – with Welsh commentary As it is, players, coaches and staff held their nerve. Only five points ahead with more than 25 minutes remaining, having been 19 ahead midway through the first, Bristol finished strongly to claim the fourth playoff spot – and with it a tie at deeply beloved rivals down the A4, Bath. They can move on to that now with confidence and little to lose. The telling moment was a searching touch-finder from AJ MacGinty, the man-of-the-match and such a vital hand on the tiller for this wild, free-flowing team. His 50-22 just shy of the hour set up the attack from which Bristol replied to Quins' questions, in a way that proved impossible in 2021. When Santiago Grondona drove over at the second attempt, for Bristol's sixth try of the day, the visitors, albeit this time playing without the prize on offer the year they went on to win the final, fell away. Gabriel Ibitoye, once of Quins himself, scored his second a few minutes later, his 13th try of the season, before BJ van Rensburg crashed over with 10 minutes remaining. In a match that was a microcosm of their season – so rich in action and flair for the first half, before dwindling alarmingly in the second half – Bristol had righted themselves to deny Gloucester and Saracens, who both registered bonus-point wins behind them. Advertisement Bristol had rattled up an early lead. Not quite the 28-0 lead after half an hour they held in 2021, but 26-7 up, bonus-point fourth in the bag, within 25 minutes is going some. They thought they had a fifth within the half-hour, only for it to be chalked off for a marginal forward pass. George Kloska, Joe Batley, the lethal Kalaveti Ravouvou and Viliame Mata were the try-scorers, with Cadan Murley, electric as always, scoring the first of two first-half tries for Quins. When Ibitoye finished a counterattack from Bristol's 22 five minutes in the second half, all seemed set fair at 31-12. But then came Quins, without a care in the world. Alex Dombrandt and George Hammond finished quickfire tries to set the Bears the test. They came through.
