Bristol Bears’ historic 23-8 away win over Wasps Rugby on Saturday was soured by a last minute injury to the club’s brightest star in the game, Sam Jeffries.
Flanker Jeffries had one of his best games for the club, making a team-high 24 tackles and the most metres in attack from the forwards before calamity struck and he injured his hamstring in the 79th minute.
The injury to Jeffries is compounded by the fact flanker Sam Lewis was also in a space boot post match having roled his ankle after coming on as a replacement in the game, with Steven Luatua (calf), Dan Thomas (ankle) and Fitz Harding (unknown) also currently sidelined.
On Saturday’s form Jeffries, who was called up as an injury replacement for England’s tour of Australia this summer when Charlie Ewels suffered a knee injury in training, looked every bit an international calibre player despite not making his debut Down Under.
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Earlier today Bath confirmed fellow England flanker Sam Underhill will miss the Autumn internationals after undergoing surgery on his shoulder, meaning Jeffries would likely have been in line to feature at Twickenham having been well and truly on head coach Eddie Jones' radar. But now that looks in significant doubt.
Speaking post-match, Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam said: “I am absolutely gutted and I am annoyed because we had a lineout we should have won just before he got injured, you win that lineout and get the ball out it is game over but we lost it so I am fuming over that.
“Sam was phenomenal, he was my man of the match by a distance with the job he did on defence. He had to go in one more time and got cleared out and it looks like his hamstring doesn’t look great.
“I am not happy about that because there are consequences when you give the opposition ball but when you lose a player like that it is heart breaking.”
Discussing his backrow depth ahead of facing London Irish at Ashton Gate on Saturday, Lam admitted it is a case of ‘all hands on deck,’ with centre Sam Bedlow finishing the match at the Coventry Building Society Arena packing down on the flank.
Lam said: “We will see on Dan Thomas this week. He wasn’t quite ready to play this week but we are certainly going to need all hands on deck.”
If needed Chris Vui can move across from second row to blindside flanker while John Hawkins has also filled the six shirt previously but options across the backline are certainly looking slim with a relentless run of games to come and ambitious Bristol currently sitting second in the league table behind Sale Sharks after two wins from two games so far this Premiership season.
