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Pat Lam, the Bristol Bears director of rugby, was honest in his assessment of the opening stanza of the season.
As the only Premiership team he travels to South Africa and play hot Stormers in Cape Town in the first round of the Champions Cup, Lahm decided to prioritize the domestic league over Europe.
The trip to the Republic is sandwiched between meetings with the Premiership Sale Sharks (impressive away win 34-24), Northampton Saints (41-26 home win), defeat by Saracens (7-30), along with two vital home games against Exeter and Leicester Tigers.
The overarching goal for Bristol is to prioritize a Premiership campaign.
“It’s probably our toughest draw ever in the first six games, until November,” he said of the decision to leave many of the stars at home and suffer a 12-49 defeat in the shadow of Table Mountain.
Lam has named the youngest and most inexperienced Bears team he has ever selected for their Champions Cup opener against the Stormers.
Major stars such as Ellis Genge (injured), Louis Rees-Zammit, Fitz Harding and AJ MacGinty did not travel to South Africa.
One-cap England international winger Gabriel Oghre also missed the trip, having suffered a calf strain in the defeat to Saracens. As a result, the Bears played their third and fourth-choice whores in Cape Town, with Harry Thacker still sidelined with a neck injury.
Lam explained that the decision to move the opening round of the Champions Cup (from December) and place it in the first block in October influenced the decision to ‘rest’ some key players for the long-haul flight to South Africa.
The return from South Africa also meant a short turnaround for their upcoming match against Exeter, resulting in the decision to ‘proactively’ manage the workload of their players.
“No player can play six games on the trot,” Lam said, adding: “All teams manage players for different reasons.
“We managed our team last week and this week.”
Lam said he was proud of the effort the young players put in to keep in touch with the Stormers, before four tries in the final half-hour to make it 21-12 to 49-12.
“A lot of these players haven’t been to South Africa and they’re buzzing,” he said.
“They played well for a long time and put the Stormers under pressure, but we had a very inexperienced group on the field in the last 20 minutes.”
The Bears boss said it was a “great experience” for the young players, most of whom will play in the Premiership Cup in November.
With a growing injury list – ahead of the trip, forwards Gabriel Oghre and Harry Thacker were left out, along with England full-back Benhard Janse van Rensburg – Lahm decided it was not worth risking his first-team players on high-intensity workloads.
“During November, a lot of these guys will be playing in the Prem Cup,” said the Medvjeda coach.
“Playing in Cape Town, against the Springboks in a quality Stormers team, is huge for those young players, several of whom are in our Academy.
“Come November, they’ll be better for it.”
