Bristol Bears’ young squad will learn from their Champions Cup defeat to Leinster, says captain Fitz Harding.
The Bears took the lead against the four-time European Cup winners in the match at Ashton Gate and held them 7-7 until 50 minutes, before New Zealand replacement Jordie Barrett scored the first of four tries for the Irish side to run away with the win.
They face another steep challenge in their next Champions Cup game when they travel to France to play 2022 and 2023 winners La Rochelle on Saturday.
“It’s great learning for us as a group. They’re the sort of team we want to compete with, we competed really well but we didn’t get the result and that’s the main thing,” Harding told BBC Radio Bristol.
“For the rest of the season this is the type of team we want to be – a team that is composed, that finds solutions to the problems in front of them and a team that can front up and I think that we’ve showed we have the capacity do that. But can we do it for 80 minutes and can we do it when the pressure’s really on?”
