Louis Rees-Zammit joined Bristol this summer.\u00a0Jan Kruger\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Bristol boss Pat Lam believes that Louis Rees-Zammit will “get better and better” after he made a try-scoring return to the Gallagher Prem.<\/p>\n
The Wales wing featured for his first Prem appearance since December 2023 after leaving rugby union to pursue a career in the NFL<\/a>.<\/p>\n Training squad stints followed with the Kansas City Chiefs and Jacksonville Jaguars, but he did not make a regular season appearance and was snapped up by Bristol as their star summer arrival.<\/p>\n And he signed off a strong all-round performance with Bristol’s fifth and final try as they beat Leicester 42-24 in front of a 20,000 crowd at Ashton Gate.<\/p>\n “That was his first 80 minutes since he has come back,” Bristol rugby director Lam said.<\/p>\n “Every day he is getting better and better, and what I liked about his game today was that he was physically good in the contact as well. He did not get it easy, and that will give him a lot of confidence.<\/p>\n – ‘Wasting my talent’ – Louis Rees-Zammit opens up on NFL move<\/a> “When he first came, I wasn’t sure how quick his transition would be in terms of a new team and the way we play, and his transition back into rugby fitness. I am really proud of him.<\/p>\n “His detail and desire to get better and keep pushing himself. he will just get better and better now.”<\/p>\n It was not all good news for Bristol, though, as backs AJ MacGinty, scrum-half Harry Randall and wing Gabriel Ibitoye all suffered injuries that forced them off.<\/p>\n Lam added: “AJ looks like he has done his Achilles. That looks the most serious. Harry Randall and Gabriel Ibitoye are hamstring injuries.<\/p>\n “The one thing about AJ is he is so professional, and in the past he has come back quicker. You never know.”<\/p>\n Rees-Zammit, Ibitoye, flanker Fitz Harding, hooker Gabriel Oghre and replacement Josh Carrington scored Bristol’s tries in a bonus-point success, while Tom Jordan added four conversions and two penalties, with MacGinty also landing a penalty.<\/p>\n Wing Adam Radwan touched down twice for Leicester in Geoff Parling’s first Prem game as head coach, with half-backs Jack van Poortvliet and Orlando Bailey also scoring and Bailey booting two conversions, but Tigers had to be content with a losing bonus-point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Louis Rees-Zammit joined Bristol this summer.\u00a0Jan Kruger\/Getty Images Bristol boss Pat Lam believes that Louis Rees-Zammit will “get…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-176412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
– Louis Rees-Zammit joins Bristol Bears in return to rugby<\/a>
– New Wales coach Tandy admits shock at Louis Rees-Zammit return<\/a><\/p>\n