Pat Lam fears Bristol Bears have lost their fourth scrum-half to injury and unavailability to once again plunge the struggling club into a crisis in the key specialist position.
For the third successive week, the Bears lost a scrum-half to a potentially serious injury as Toby Venner, who only joined the club on loan from Gloucester Rugby on Monday, damaged his knee in the 19-14 defeat to Worcester Warriors on Friday night in a non-contact incident as he looked to launch a big step before attacking a gap in the defensive line.
Having come off the bench for his debut for the club, replacing Theo Strang who was making his first start in the Premiership for Bristol having arrived on trial in the summer, Venner was replaced at number nine by Ioan Lloyd who has now played in every position in the backline at some point this season.
Veneer joins Andy Uren and Tom Whiteley on the sidelines with both men out with hamstring injuries, while first-choice number nine Harry Randall is away on international duty with England in the Six Nations until March 26.
Uren is scheduled to return in mid-April while Whiteley is likely to miss the rest of the season having had surgery on his injury.
Speaking after the final whistle at Sixways, Lam said: “I feel sorry for Toby, he has really been fantastic coming in this week.
“He has put a lot of effort into learning the Bears way.
“He is a good little player and now he has done his knee, it is really unfortunate.
“It is possibly a long-term injury, we will need to learn more, but it didn’t look good.
“So that is four down now.
“We have still got Theo there and now Max Green gets an opportunity.
“That is a challenge for us because nine is a big part of our game and what we do, we just need to get him up to speed.”
Green was also signed on loan on Monday, joining the Bears from Bath on a short-term deal, which is all well and good but Bristol face their derby rivals twice in the next month, in the league on March 5 and in the Premiership Rugby Cup on March 18, with the terms of the loan likely to state he is unable to play in those fixtures.
Should that be the case, Lam will likely have to head into the loan market again this week adding further disruption to the misfiring side’s attack which scored two tries at Sixways, but both from close range drives in the pack rather than flamboyant moves in the backs.
Meanwhile, the Bears' scrum struggled once tighthead Max Lahiff departed in the second half for relative top-flight rookie Ashley Challenger, with former All Black John Afoa unavailable with a muscle strain in his leg and first choice Kyle Sinkler also away with England.
Lam also confirmed that skipper Steven Luatua, who joined Lahiff is scoring for the Bears in the defeat to Worcester, was replaced after 50 minutes after feeling his troublesome calf tighten. "We didn't want to risk him," Lam said.
The Bears face Wasps at Ashton Gate next this Friday.
