PAT LAM says Bristol have begun an urgent search for scrum-half cover after third-choice nine Tom Whiteley went off injured.
“It looks like a hamstring so it's concerning,” said the Bears director of rugby. “Harry Randall's away, Andy Uren's gone, now Tom Whiteley's gone. We're going to have to get another nine. It's not easy but we'll get cracking on that tonight.”
Lam said his side's failure to retain the ball, especially when reduced to 14 men, cost them against an attack-minded Irish side.
He said: “We gave away some pretty soft tries. The red card doesn't help. We got loose and we paid the price.
“With ten minutes to go we did exactly what we should have done: kept the ball, played at them.
The bench came on and made a difference and we scored three tries and got the bonus point.
“We're annoyed at what happened tonight and all we can do is dust ourselves down and go again. The tries at the end show what we can do when we get things right.”
