Pat Lam: Bristol Bears boss says working to Premiership salary cap is 'really easy'

Working to the Premiership salary cap is "really easy" and there is "no way" you can breach it with the right model in place, says Bristol boss Pat Lam.

Champions Saracens were fined £5.36m and docked 35 points by an independent disciplinary panel earlier this month.

Bristol signed Fiji star Semi Radradra on Wednesday, with the winger set to line-up alongside the league's highest-paid player Charles Piutau next season.

"What we've done is used the framework given to us," said Lam.

"The first thing I did here was sit down with Andrew Rogers [Premiership Rugby head of governance and regulation] and Mark Tainton [Bristol chief executive] and we went through everything.

"The beauty about the way it's set up is he [Rogers] is the guy that signs everything off, so if you have any questions you just ask him."

The salary cap stands at £7m for the 2019-20 season, with clubs able to nominate two players in their squad to be excluded from the cap.

Lam, who confirmed that Radradra would join as one of their two allotted 'marquee' players, said he also expected Piutau to remain at Ashton Gate despite being his current contract expiring at the end of this season.

"The Premiership salary cap is there to make sure there's an even competition across the board," added Lam. "I haven't spent any more money than my predecessors.

"I've brought the same contracting and recruitment model as I had at Connacht. It's really clear - if I put an offer in here, a number changes somewhere else. There's no way you can go over.

"I go nowhere near that line. We're way below it, that's the exciting thing about it."