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Bristol issue Semi Radradra fitness update following last weekend's comeback appearance

By PA
(Photo by PA)

Semi Radradra has boosted Bristol ahead of the Heineken Champions Cup clash with Bordeaux-Begles by declaring himself fit. The Fijian centre returned from a two-month lay-off last weekend as Gallagher Premiership leaders Bristol produced a thrilling comeback to beat Harlequins 35-33 at Ashton Gate.

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Bears director of rugby Pat Lam said: “Semi did well. We weren’t planning on him playing 80 but he did. The second half was very stop-start and that worked in his favour. So he is raring to go again. He felt he wasn’t at his best so he has trained well so far.”

While Radradra is ready to take his place against the side he joined Bristol from in July 2020, Bears captain Steven Luatua is set to miss out on Sunday’s round-of-16 clash in France. The New Zealand forward was forced off in the first half against Harlequins with a knee injury.

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Lam said: “Steven has had a few tests. Thankfully, structurally things aren’t damaged. But there is a lot of swelling on it, so he is looking doubtful for this week. Of course, it would be great to have him available, like all the players, and it’s important the next guy steps up and gets the job done.”

Bristol are monitoring Fijian wing Siva Naulago’s knee injury, while No8 Nathan Hughes is fit to make the trip to France.

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BigGabe 1 hour ago
'Love him or hate him, Henry Pollock has got the rugby world talking.'

Well, I would disagree with your take that you don’t take the p*** out of the opposition.


Sledging and posturing is very much a part of the game - “four more years”/"just a **** richie mccaw”/any swan dive celebration/English yelling when they win minor penalties/etc etc. Cricket has much the same when a wicket keeper chats in a batsman’s ears, but no one complains about it. Just because we can’t hear what goes on a ruck or maul, or see what goes on, doesn’t mean it doesn’t go on. Sport is emotional. Let’s not pretend that rugby has a history of behaving like absolute gentleman before the final whistle goes off.


The spirit of rugby…now this is an interesting one. What does that mean? 2-3 years ago, the 6-2/7-1 split was against the spirit of rugby, but now it is used by club and country. Does this mean the spirit of rugby can change? In 1974, the Lions had an infamous Call 99. Today, teams are still getting into fights. Other sports don’t do this. Is this the spirit of rugby? I think this phrase is one of those useful ones that means everything and nothing and can be used by both sides of the fence, as well as the fence itself, to justify what they want to see. But perhaps we should not be looking at Pollock, but at ourselves. Are we (you) all not giving a self-described wind up merchant exactly what he wants? I think this conservative group of sports fans needs to realise that just bc they have viewed rugby a certain way for a long time, does not mean that it necessarily needs to be viewed that way for ever and ever amen. That’s gatekeeping and the generations to come don’t like or respect it. As rugby culture breaks into new markets, it needs to constantly adjust.

9 Go to comments
N
Nickers 2 hours ago
USA team in Super Rugby Pacific is not the answer right now, but this is

The question for any expansion is - what is the point?


On one hand talking about expanding for commercial reasons, but then saying younger squad members would play giving big names a rest making it more for development purposes?


The problem with SRP is it serves two masters - fans who want a good competition to watch, but also the national teams in developing players so they can go on to become international players.


The case for maximising young player development:


A major problem NZ and Australia have is at U20s. AR and NZR would be best served by investing in proper U20 super rugby competition that runs in conjunction with Super Rugby, rather than the one-off carnival style thing that happens at the moment. 20 year olds coming out of France and England in particular, but also France are noticeably more developed than the equivalent players from NZ, Australia and even SA.


NZ and Australia probably both have one too many teams in SR. If you’re taking a long term view they are best served by cutting teams from the comp now and improving the quality even more. Although MP have been good this year there is also an argument for cutting them too, and reducing to 8 teams that all play each other home and away in a round robin. It would be a ridiculously strong competition with a lot of depth if all the best players are redistributed.


This in conjunction with a full U20s competition (possibly playing just one round rather than 2) would make NZ and Australia international teams much stronger with a lot more depth.


But that solution would make less money and cost more.


NPC would need to be fully amateur or semi-pro at best in this model. If you cross reference the losses NZR posted today with the costs they have previously published about operating the NPC, you can attribute a huge amount, if not all of the losses, to the NPC. At the moment this is putting way too much money into a failing high performance competition at the expense of development.

12 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Brendan Fanning: 'Leinster have the best-resourced squad in these islands but can’t make it pay.' Brendan Fanning: 'Leinster have the best-resourced squad in these islands but can’t make it pay.'
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