European rugby wrap: Pat Lam's Bristol Bears earn historic victory

Bristol's Steven Luatua (left) hands off Bath's Ruaridh McConnochie during the Gallagher Premiership match. Photo / Getty

Pat Lam's Bristol Bears savoured a special outing in Bath over the weekend with Steven Luatua and Charles Piutau paving the way for their first win at the Rec in 14 years.

Lam beamed with pride following the tense 19-13 victory, the historical significance of the result at Bristol's West County neighbour's home patch evoking joyful scenes from all involved with the Bears.

Bristol have now pulled off the Premiership double over Bath this season and their fourth win in a row, their first at the Rec since November 2006, lifts them to third on the table. Not bad for a side navigating their way through their second season since promotion to English rugby's top-flight.

Lam's vision, and the deep pockets of Bristol owner Steve Lansdown, are beginning to come to fruition.

So, too, have Steven Luatua and Charles Piutau been integral to Bristol's rise.

Luatua is fast morphing into an inspirational captain. In this match he returned from a neck injury to snaffle turnovers, provide a superb offload that led to one of Bristol's three tries and he tackled himself to a standstill while playing out of position at openside.

After an injury-disrupted season, Piutau has returned with impetus to be named man of the match from fullback against Bath.

In his last two outings Piutau has made 43 runs for 312 metres, six clean breaks, and beaten an astonishing 25 defenders.

Even on boggy English pitches in the middle of winter his magic feet remain as lethal as ever.

Bristol set the goal of finishing within the top six in order to qualify for next season's European Champions Cup competition. They're well on their way to achieving that feat, and potentially challenging for this year's Premiership title.

"I'm very, very proud of the guys," Lam said. "That's the result of a lot of work. We had a pretty physical week, we had to create a game plan because we were coming down to the toughest conditions in the Premiership.

"We talked about not getting bored of the game we needed to play to win. We selected the group accordingly and it was a very big win.

"Bath are going well because they're winning games on this field and we did a lot of work, as coaches, looking at the way we play and we started the week by saying, 'we've got to be excited, boys, to come down and play the rugby that we need to win'.

"Not necessarily the rugby that you want to do, but is about the teamwork, graft. And we set that mindset right at the beginning and the boys stuck to it."

Elsewhere in the Premiership, Jacob Umaga scored a try and Jimmy Gopperth kicked 11 points as Wasps defeated London Irish 36-26 away from home.

Chris Boyd's Northampton Saints slipped to fourth after losing 27-21 at home to Saracens.

Over in the Pro14 former Hurricanes lock Sam Lousi left his mark – but not in a positive way.

The Tongan international, who played three seasons for the Hurricanes before moving to Wales this season, seems destined for a lengthy spell on the sidelines after his moment of madness cost Brad Mooar's Scarlets in their 29-10 loss to Munster.

Lousi was sent off in the 34th minute after landing a one two punch combination – the like rarely seen in the modern game – on Munster first-five JJ Hanrahan with and lock Fineen Wycherley.

Lousi, the 28-year-old league convert, could now be banned for months.

Joe Schmidt returns to the coaching box:

After largely laying low following Ireland's disastrous World Cup, Schmidt is again gaining prominence.

First he popped up in Spain, helping their national team, and he is now helping French club Clermont, his old club, on a short term basis.

Schmidt was in the coaching box for Clermont's 32-15 win away to Agen in the Top14 on Saturday.

Clermont coach Franck Azéma praised Schmidt's impact, and Bath are rumoured to have logged their interest in luring his services on a more full-time basis.

Six Nations paywall causes outrage:

The private interest tentacles of CVC Capital Partners are beginning to show their intentions with the Six Nations seemingly set to ditch free-to-air coverage in favour of securing enticing revenue from pay TV.

All Six Nations fixtures have been screened for free on BBC and ITV for the past two decades.

Now, though, just as CVC is expected to add a stake in the Six Nations to their rugby portfolio that already includes the English Premiership and Pro 14, Sky Sports has become the favourite to secure the next broadcasting deal, worth a reported £300 million ($NZD611m).

CVC is also weighing an approach to Sanzaar, with the view to bundling together television rights for competitions around the world into a single package for broadcasters.

While pay TV and rugby have gone hand-in-hand in New Zealand since professionalism took hold, there are fears in the north such a move would lead to the irreversible decline in participation rates and interest.

One Welsh MP has even tabled a motion to keep the Six Nations on free to air.

Ultimately, CVC will have a large say in the Six Nations future. They don't invest for altruistic reasons.