{"id":63425,"date":"2025-04-30T16:56:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T16:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/63425\/"},"modified":"2025-04-30T16:56:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T16:56:08","slug":"wales-bristol-bears-boss-pat-lam-opens-up-on-head-coach-interest-planet-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/63425\/","title":{"rendered":"Wales: Bristol Bears boss Pat Lam opens up on head coach interest : Planet Rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bristol Bears director of rugby Pat Lam has revealed he was approached by the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) over the vacant Wales head coaching role, but will remain with the Premiership side.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lam has been one of the leading contenders to replace Warren Gatland since the New Zealand-native was sacked, however, it now appears Steve Tandy will take up the post instead.<\/p>\n

Pat Lam opens up on Wales job interest<\/p>\n

The former Connacht boss has previously spoken of his desire to coach the Welsh national side, but he detailed that he will stay loyal to Bristol for the time being.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a check around my availability,\u201d Lam<\/a> told WalesOnline<\/a>. \u201cThat was all.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he did admit he would like to make the step into coaching international level and opened up on his love of Welsh rugby in particular.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo I want to coach at international level? Yeah. But at the moment, I\u2019ve got three more years here and I\u2019m committed to Bristol.<\/p>\n

Wales legend makes retirement call as future coaching career awaits<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBut I have said before and it\u2019s on record that I love everything about Welsh<\/a> rugby. If the timing was available, of course you\u2019d look at it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exactly the way I feel,\u201d he added. \u201cNothing\u2019s changed in that sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I committed my time here at Bristol. We\u2019ve got a job here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wales appoint new Director of Rugby with \u2018unmatched\u2019 experience<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Lam already has a decorated coaching career in the club game. He guided Connacht to their first ever domestic title in 2016 as they won the Pro12, before guiding Bristol back into the Premiership a year later. He has also tasted European success with the Bears, winning the EPCR Challenge Cup.<\/p>\n

His comments also come following the WRU\u2019s appointment of Dave Reddin as director of rugby and elite performance.<\/p>\n

Upon his arrival, the former close ally of England football manager Gareth Southgate detailed that finding a new head coach is his number one priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy immediate focus is on the appointment of the next senior men\u2019s head coach,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cBut, I will also be immersing myself in gaining an understanding of the people and the game in Wales as quickly as possible to give me the insight to start to make positive changes for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

As mentioned above, Steve Tandy is the leading contender to take on the job after interest cooled on Lam, while Cardiff\u2019s Matt Sherratt and Harlequins\u2019 Danny Wilson are also understood to be in the conversation too.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Ex-Wales international comes out of retirement for \u2018unfinished business\u2019 at Scarlets<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bristol Bears director of rugby Pat Lam has revealed he was approached by the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,393,4884,225,522,12,32687,6875,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-63425","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-home-page","13":"tag-international","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-pat-lam","16":"tag-premiership","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114427971737468211","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}