Bristol Bears’ injured superstars are set to return in phases over the next three months but British and Irish Lion Kyle Sinckler and former All Black Charles Piutau are fit to start the new Premiership season, Pat Lam has confirmed today.
Tighthead prop Sinkler has recovered from the back niggles that have plagued him since the 2022 Six Nations after being left at home from England’s summer tour to Australia to recuperate.
Explosive full-back Piutau, who switched international allegiances this summer to play for Tonga, is also on track to be available to face Bath on September 9 for the Premiership curtain raiser at Ashton Gate.
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Bears director of rugby Lam confirmed to BristolLive he intends to play both men against the Scarlets in the club’s final pre-season warm-up game as part of a close to strongest available squad.
Lam said: “Kyle is good to go and ready for the start of the season. That break has done him the world of good. He is pumped and with Ellis [Genge] coming in as well it has raised the standard of the forward pack.
“It has been his first pre-season for years and he is buzzing and ready to go.
Lam added: “Charles will be on deck and ready to go next week against Scarlets as well.”
Sinckler, sporting a new impressive beard was taking part in the open training session as Ashton Gate today while Piutau was busy signing autographs for young fans.
As expected, the Bears will start the league season without two of their most dangerous attacking threats in the backline as star Fijian centre Semi Radradra and fellow Fijian winger Siva Naulago - who was so dangerous in attack when fit last season he has caught the eye of England head coach Eddie Jones, both still recovering from knee surgery.
But Lam provided a positive update on the pair. He said: “They are on track after their surgeries, Semi had his knee surgery and is tracking very well and as expected he is due to be back early October.
“Siva is due back in late November, early December from his injury. They are on track and doing well.”
Another notable absentee from Bristol’s training session was summer signing Gabriel Ibitoye.
Discussing the former Harlequins winger, who is now 24, Lam explained: “He had a strain on his quad last week. He was going to play against Brive last week but we don’t want to take any risks when you are talking about a high-end, high-speed athlete, he should be good for next week.
“He has been very good in training but we need to see it in a game now. The most important thing is with a very long season ahead we don’t want to take any risks when we don’t need to.”
Lam also confirmed captain Steven Luatua is set to miss the opening game of the league season after suffering a calf injury in his training. His return date is currently unknown.
But before the season gets underway Bristol face the Dragons on Friday night in their second pre-season game of the summer having lost 22-17 to Brive last weekend.
Pat Lam is expected to name his travelling squad around lunchtime tomorrow.
BristolLive will be live blogging the Bears’s second pre-season game from Rodney Parade giving you all the build-up, live play-by-play action, reaction and analysis from the match.
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