Bristol Bears will rest England duo Ellis Genge and Harry Randall for Friday’s trip to the Twickenham Stoop on Friday night in Round Seven of the Gallagher Premiership.
As part of the latest agreement between the clubs and RFU, England internationals have to be rested on one of the next three weekends, and with the duo only arriving back at Bristol on Tuesday, having both played in the 59-14 win against Japan on Sunday, Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam has opted to give both key men some time to refresh with their families.
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Explaining his thinking, Lam said: “Rands and Gengey have to have a rest because they were both involved in all four of England’s games this Autumn.
“Rands has probably only collectively had 80 minutes of rugby over the last five weeks, but he has done all the training and has a week off now. We are going to have to spend a bit of time getting him back up to speed because he was averaging 70 minutes a game for us before going away to international rugby where he has been used off the bench. There is going to need to be some topping up of his fitness work to get him up to speed to play the Bears way. Gengey is off as well but will be back next week.
“I made the decision because of the short turnaround; they weren’t released until Monday afternoon because after camp, they had their end-of-season get-together and medicals; Tuesday is a down day for us, so we only would have got them for one session before Friday’s game.
“Also, it is not just about the physical side of things; they have had five intensive weeks of playing the England way and being fully focused on that so even that takes a bit of processing to get back to playing our way. If it had been a Sunday game, we might have considered it, but the best thing for those boys is to mentally and physically refresh so we get the best version of them.”
The upside for Bristol is Lam’s decision also means the star pair will be available for selection for two of the biggest imaginable games in the Champions Cup, with Leinster coming to Ashton Gate on December 7 before travelling to La Rochelle six days later. If the Bears are to have any hope against the pair of former European champions they will need all their best players on the park.
Harlequins also had a strong contingent involved with England this Autumn with Marcus Smith, Chandler Cunningham-South and Fin Baxter featuring against Japan and Alex Dombrandt involved earlier in the campaign.