Bristol boss Pat Lam reflected on “a magic occasion” after his team made a dream return to the Gallagher Premiership.
Fly-half Ian Madigan’s four penalties and a late Alapati Leiua try saw Bristol home 17-10 against west country rivals Bath, with a 26,000 crowd – Bristol’s biggest home attendance – roaring them to victory.
“I am extremely proud of the guys,” head coach Lam said. “It has been a big day for the club.
“The thing about the Premiership is that we are going to be under a lot of pressure and spend time without the ball, and we had to dig deep as a team.
“We now go to Saracens next, the defending champions away. There are a few niggles, and it will be a different team next week because we have got to use our squad.
“It was a magic occasion tonight to kick off a wonderful competition.
“It’s nice to be back, and it was a good start for us, but we get back to work on Monday.”
Bath fought back from nine points adrift to lead when full-back Tom Homer scored a second-half try and Rhys Priestland kicked a conversion and penalty.
But the visitors were ultimately punished for a terrible 15th-minute blunder when an unmarked Homer remarkably failed to ground the ball after crossing Bristol’s line.
Bristol, last season’s Championship winners, were indebted to huge performances from the likes of skipper Steven Luatua and lock Chris Vui, while Madigan missed just one kick off the tee, keeping his composure amid intense pressure.
Lam heaped praise on Luatua, adding: “I’ve known Steven since he was 16. He is class.
“One of the reasons I gave him the captaincy is because each time he has captained the team, it’s his best rugby. He feels that extra responsibility.
“There are good leaders around him, and he is just going to go from strength to strength.”
Bath’s Todd Blackadder and Bristol coach Pat Lam.
Reflecting on the Homer howler, Bath Rugby director Todd Blackadder said: “It’s simply making sure of those things. You don’t leave them to chance. It (try) wasn’t awarded, so it doesn’t really matter.
“The points were there for us tonight, but we just didn’t capitalise. It was one of those ones we let slip through our fingers.
“The annoying thing was the inconsistency of some of our actions. Some were brilliant, and some weren’t, and often in a dog-fight like tonight that can be the difference.
“Our ball into contact was really poor – we turned over far too much ball. When we did build a bit of pressure I felt we had them on the back foot, but we didn’t do it enough.”
