Bristol Bears head coach Pat Lam says his side need to cut out their handling errors ahead of Sunday’s encounter with Exeter Chiefs.
The Bears lost last week against Harlequins with only 90 seconds to spare, as Jarrod Evan’s slotted a late penalty, to lose despite dominating for the majority of the second half.
The Bears fought back from nine points down to regain the lead last week but crucial mistakes meant that they let their opponents back into the game.
Lam’s side have won two out of three games in the season so far and although early take on Exeter in a top of the table clash, which could be a must win game if the Bears are to challenge for the Premiership title.
The Bristol Bears coach said: “We basically dominated the second half but you can never write off a team like Harlequins, we lost four games in the last minute last season, we were ahead with about two minutes to go and that’s why we probably needed to be more points up.
“We had the opportunities to go more points up, but we couldn’t more pressure on because we continued to make mistakes.”
The Chiefs themselves have also won two out of their opening games, thumping Sale Sharks 43-0 last time out.
To have any chance away in Exeter, Bristol will need to build a score from the early stages of the game and continue to do that throughout the entirety of the match, which they were unable to do against Harlequins last time out.
Lam said: “Harlequins got out to a lead in not great conditions and then they get that TMO decision at the end, but that’s our own fault, we put ourselves in the position where we had so many opportunities to get points and we didn’t take them so we only have ourselves to blame.
“We started well but we turned ball over that’s the main thing, we started well but the ball went dead, we dropped the ball out in the wide channels and you cant put pressure on the opposition if you keep making mistakes.”
