Mastermind: Pat Lam, taking charge of the Barbarians in May

Pat Lam is an expert when it comes to putting teams on the rugby map. That’s what the Bristol coach did in his former incarnation as Samoa’s swashbuckling No.8, when, at the 1991 World Cup, he helped the tiny Pacific Islands nation send shockwaves through the rugby world by beating Wales.
That was just the start. Lam knows a lot more about the Premiership than clinging on by his fingernails, which is what most pundits predict he will be doing with Bristol this season. That’s because he has used those fingers to...