Opposition view: Lam so proud after Bristol Bears put Saints to the sword

The Bears bagged nine tries in a scintillating show of attacking rugby, leaving third-placed Saints to reflect on their record Premiership defeat.

Bristol have now won six of their past seven matches in all competitions and they are just three points adrift of fourth place.

"Yeah, very proud of the boys," Lam said. "I think I've just been told it's our highest score in the Premiership and Saints’ highest loss in the Premiership and you know I think for the boys it's satisfying because of the work we've been doing and the way we've prepared for this week.

"We took our learnings from Bath and, like a lot of people make comments about their game, but our job was to beat Bath and we did that.

"We put a lot of work in the week and we saw the conditions, we knew it was coming in, and we knew that we had to be on our game.

"Probably the thing I'm most proud about was our defence. There were a couple times that ball needed to go out and we talked about it all week because they're dangerous on that counter-attack. And they came, but we just kept them out and kept them out.

"In our own 22 we had about two times where early on we had two and a half minute blocks of defence, which most teams would give in against that attack.

"And then even at the very end, I think Tom Collins broke, Chris Vui got him. Everyone was running back, they had every excuse not to because we were 40, 50 points ahead but the D was tremendous; and you know praise to (defence coach) Jordan Crane on the work he's doing with some key guys.

"Then the other thing I was really pleased about was with it being 27-3 at half-time, we spoke about it and said this is where these guys traditionally come back. And we said, this is a challenge now and we're going to need everybody to fight right through to the end, and they did that.

"I thought the try they got was dubious as well.

"Harry Thacker got a forward pass and it looked exactly the same to me, even potentially out. So we're gutted we gave away that try.

"But all in all it was a very, very good performance.

"But at the end of the day, it's five points on the table. We have got to go again. We are still not where we want to be and we will keep working."