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Bristol's recruitment spree continues

By Alex Shaw
Ulster’s Bristol-bound Charles Piutau

Despite Bristol announcing nine new signings back in January, as well as the high-profile addition of Charles Piutau earlier in the campaign, it seems the Championship club’s recruitment for the 2018/19 season is not over.

GloucestershireLive are reporting that Bristol are in the hunt for Gloucester’s academy scrum-half Harry Randall.

Randall, 20, is a World Rugby U20 Championship winner with England, although he is also eligible for Wales, having been born and raised there before moving to England for schooling.

With Willi Heinz, Ben Vellacott and Callum Braley on board at the Cherry and Whites, there is no quick route up the depth chat for Randall, but the hierarchy would look to be less congested at Bristol.

The Championship leaders have already snapped up Australian Nic Stirzaker for next season and having promising scrum-half Andy Uren available to them, but Randall could be the kind of opportunistic, sniping nine that could give Bristol valuable impact off the bench.

Should Bristol miss out on Randall, who could yet sign a new contract at Gloucester or move to one of the Welsh regions, whom RugbyPass understand to be interested in the livewire scrum-half, they could turn their attentions to Sam Hidalgo-Clyne.

Edinburgh have announced that the Scottish scrum-half will be leaving the club at the end of the season and Bristol were rumoured to be looking at him a couple of months ago.

After an impressive start to his career, with everyone predicting big things for him at club and international levels, Hidalgo-Clyne’s career has stagnated a little, but he is the kind of player that Pat Lam would be confident of re-igniting and turning into a valuable addition.

The Rugby Paper are reporting that high-flying Ealing full-back Luke Daniels could be on his way to Bristol, too.