Former Worcester Warriors flanker Sam Lewis has signed for Bristol Bears after spending the last month on trial at the club.
The highly rated 31-year-old Welsh flanker had been linked with potential moves to the Japananese League One or MLR in the United States having been left without a club at the end of last season despite being a regular top performer for Worcester.
But instead of a move abroad Lewis has signed for the Bears for the 2022-23 season after impressing Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam, reports Wales Online, with the flanker putting pen to paper on a deal earlier this week.
READ MORE: Bristol Bears injury latest ahead of Bath: Joe Joyce, Steven Luatua, Dan Thomas, Fitz Harding
Lewis has featured in two of Bristol's three pre-season games this summer, coming off the bench against Brive and Dragons. The Bears had been linked with Worcester captain Ted Hill, but the latest coming out of Warriors is the club have the finances in place to start the new league season and will not lose any players despite uncertainly over the future of the club after HMRC issued them with a winding up order over an unpaid tax bill.
The move comes with the Bears short of options at the back of the scrum heading into the new Premiership season which kicks off on Friday night with Bath Rugby coming to Ashton Gate.
Having seen England international Nathan Hughes and Mitch Eadie leave the club in June at the end of their contracts and now with injuries to Steven Luatua, Dan Thomas and Fitz Harding, Lam has moved to improve his depth across the backrow with Lewis.
Thomas rolled his ankle in the Bears’ second pre-season game against the Dragons and is touch and go to face Bath, but former All Blacks flanker Luatua and last season’s breakout star Fitz Harding will almost certainly be unavailable for the opening round. game
Luatua pulled a calf in pre-season training while Fitz Harding is in the club’s return to play group of players.
That leaves Lam with Sam Jeffries, who toured Australia with England this summer, Scotland international Magnus Bradbury, Jake Heenan and John Hawkins as his senior backrow options to face Bath, and now former Ospreys man Lewis.
Uncapped Lewis will join fellow Welsh man Callum Sheedy, Ioan Lloyd and Dan Thomas at the club.
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