Pat Lam is set to unleash his best available XV against Australia A on Friday night in another historic exhibition game at Ashton Gate, but the Bristol Bears boss says he his not about to neglect the Premiership Rugby Cup trip to Bath altogether.
Bristol kicked off their cup campaign with a dominant 67-19 win over Championship side Bedford Blues on Saturday but head to the Gallagher Premiership pace-setters on Saturday for a much sterner test, less than 24 hours after facing international opposition to put a considerable strain on the Bears’ thin squad which also had 14 players on their unavailable list last weekend, including Harry Randall and Ellis Genge who featured in England’s 24-22 defeat to New Zealand at Twickenham.
READ MORE: Bristol Bears sign scrum-half to cover injuries and international call-ups
Lam said: “We have got a massive challenge this week because we have got Bath on Saturday, but we have got Australia first on Friday night.
“AJ MacGinty has gone with the USA, Santi Grondona is about to go with Argentina, I am not sure if Benjamin Elizalde and Benjamin Grononda are going to get called up as well. We are managing the group and I am thankful there weren’t any more injuries.
“Joe Jenkins took a bit of a hit leading up to one of try, it was a hip pointer. I got him off because we can’t take a risk heading into next week. If I lost Joe I would be really stretched and I would probably have to bring through some of our U18s and use our partnership with Bristol University.
“My selection will probably be our strongest XV for Australia, the next strongest XV for Bath and then just fill the bench between the two fixtures.”
While Lam said he wants to use the Premiership Rugby Cup to test the levels of where his youngest and least experienced players are at, he also has eyes on trying to win the competition. He said: “Any tournament you play in, you have to go in thinking you can win it, otherwise what is the point? I think we have been guilty in the past of just using the Prem Cup to give guys some game time, but this season the boys knew right from the start of the summer if they worked and trained hard they would get their chance to play but our expectation is to win it, and to do that you have got to pick up points.”
An inexperienced Bath side opened their account in the competition with a 73-0 thumping of Ampthill on Saturday and Johann van Graan looks likely to select a strong side for their home fixture with a weekend off to follow.
Lam added: “This competition is like midterm exams for the younger group. Whatever happens, we will know where they are and we can work out where we need to top them up. There were still things they didn’t quite right again Bedford, whether that is around the setpiece, defence or attack, but now the coaches can pick those things up and at least we have something to grab hold of and we can put time into each person to build them up and bring them up to speed.
“With that run in we have got from Harlequins, when the Premiership returns, through to the end of January, we are going to need everybody. By the end of this month we will know where guys are out and get to work pushing their floor up.”