Bristol’s director of rugby was impressed as the Bears powered their way to a 52-21 victory in their final Pool B clash, having led just 14-13 at half-time, to finish fourth in Pool B.

Having run in six tries in the last 25 minutes, Lam hopes Bristol have set a real benchmark for the competition ahead of April’s all-Gallagher Premiership tie with Sale.

Lam told Bristol Bears TV: “We want to do that over a longer period of time, but it was a real credit to the boys on the back of the work we do in the week.

“We are getting better and better, and stronger and stronger, because we are working hard on and off the field at the High-Performance Centre.

“The boys are getting the rewards for it and the changing room is happy. We can park this now until April and come back to it.”

Already-qualified Bears were ruthless in the final quarter at Parc y Scarlets, which Lam credited to his players’ mentality.

He said: “The last 20-30 minutes was enjoyable for the players, but the good thing I'm really pleased about is that at half-time Callum Sheedy said ‘we’re our own worst enemies’ and Joe Joyce said ‘let’s get the job done’.

“In the first half we scored two good tries, but we were just making little errors on our own game on both sides of the ball.

“To hear them say that is great. And we just showed where opportunities are, and most importantly, if we control the ball, we are a dangerous team. Certainly, the last 20-30 minutes were very good.

“You know when our team is strong when the bench is very strong. When they came on, you saw the difference, the experience.”

Pat Lam has urged his Bristol Bears side to build on their emphatic second-half display against Scarlets in Round 4 of the Heineken Champions Cup as they look forward to a last-16 meeting with Sale Sharks in April.