Pat Lam has confirmed he will open up his famous black book of contacts and try and bring in an additional scrum-half following injuries in Bristol Bears’ bonkers 32-49 defeat to London Irish on Friday night.
The club’s fourth choice scrum half, Theo Strang, finished the game at nine after Tom Whiteley limped off the field in the 58th minute with his arms around the neck of two medical staff
That presents Lam with a dramatic problem as first choice Harry Randall is away with England during the Six Nations, and will start against Italy in Rome on Saturday, and the Bears lost second choice Andy Uren to a hamstring injury in last weekend’s victory over Newcastle Falcons.
Speaking about Whiteley after the final whistle of the 81-point thriller, Lam said: “It looks like a hamstring so it is a bit concerning now.
“Harry Randall is away, Andy Uren has gone with a hamstring injury, Theo Strang did well when he came on, but we are going to have to get another nine.
“It is not easy but we will get straight on that tonight."
Lam looks also set to be without star winger Siva Naulago for the next few weeks as well after the Fijian was red-carded in the 58th minute for a high tackle on Exiles full-back Henry Arundell.
Lam had no initial complaint with the decision by referee Christophe Ridley to dismiss his winger. He said: “I will have to have a look at it and go through the process, that is what you face if you go anywhere near a high tackle.”
Before being dismissed Naulago had scored his ninth try in 11 Premiership games having only returned to action last month after missing the first half of the season with a broken arm sustained in the final run of pre-season.
On the night it was Bristol’s start to the second half which killed them, even before Naulago was dismissed.
The Bears went in 15-10 up having scored through Whiteley and Naulago, while a Nick Phipps try saw the Exiles in the fight.
But despite London Irish being down to 14 men with Agustin Creevy in the sin bin for the first eight minutes of the second half, the visitors came out the more composed and dangerous, scoring tries through Benard Janse van Rensburg, Phipps, Ben Loader, Paddy Jackson and Tom Pearson.
Bristol looked to have surrendered as Lam emptied his inexperienced bench, but his replacements had other ideas with Strang and Ashley Challenger both scoring on their Premiership debuts before replacement hooker Jake Kerr scored a fifth try to provide the Bears with a silver lining to defeat.
Lam said: “The players who came on did well.
“With five minutes to go it looked like we were going to get nothing but we scored three quick tries which showed what we can do when we get things right.”
It also provided Bristol with at least an attacking bonus point from the match ahead of facing Worcester Warriors next weekend.
Lam added: “We will bounce back, that is how it is in the Premiership.
“We are annoyed with what happened tonight but all we can do is dust ourselves down and go again.”
Bristol Bears: 15. Henry Purdy, 14. Siva Naulago, 13. Semi Radradra, 12. Piers O’Conor, 11. Alapati Leiua, 10. Ioan Lloyd, 9. Tom Whiteley; 1. Yann Thomas, 2. Harry Thacker, 3. Max Lahiff, 4. Chris Vui, 5. Joe Joyce, 6. Steven Luatua, 7. Sam Jeffries, 8. Fitz Harding
Replacements : 16. Jake Kerr, 17. Jake Woolmore, 18. Ashley Challenger, 19. John Hawkins, 20. Jake Heenan, 21. Theo Strang, 22. Tiff Eden, 23. Antoine Frisch
London Irish: 15 Henry Arundell, 14 James Stokes, 13 Benhard van Rensburg, 12 Terrence Hepetema, 11 Ben Loader, 10 Paddy Jackson, 9 Nick Phipps (c); 1 Will Goodrick-Clarke, 2 Agustin Creevy, 3 Ollie Hoskins, 4 Rob Simmons, 5 Adam Coleman, 6 Olly Cracknell, 7 Juan Martin Gonzalez, 8 Sean O’Brien
Replacements: 16 Mike Willemse, 17 Facundo Gigena, 18 Marcel van der Merwe, 19 George Nott, 20 Tom Pearson, 21 Hugh O’Sullivan, 22 Curtis Rona, 23 Kyle Rowe
Referee: Christophe Ridley (51st Premiership game).
Assistant Referees: Joe James and Wayne Falla.
TMO: Ian Tempest.
Citing Officer: Paul Hull
