Bristol Bears are set to unleash giant summer signing Viliame ‘Bill’ Mata against Harlequins on Friday night after the Fijian international star has been ripping it up in training following his return from injury
Number eight Mata joined the Bears from Edinburgh in the summer as the club’s headline addition, but injured his hamstring in pre-season which required surgery to resolve. Now, with the Bears short of options in the second row where Mata has played before, he is fit to return to action to make his Premiership debut with Bristol sitting third in the standings, just a point off leaders Bath.
Providing and update on Mata’s injury status, Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam said: “He is flying, he is on track for Quins and available for selection. He has been training the last couple of weeks and the RTP [Ruturn to Play] boys deserve a lot of credit, so does Bill. The players and staff when they watch him train are getting pretty enthusiastic and looking forward to him pulling a Bears shirt on because some of the stuff he is doing in training is amazing for the size of the man.
“What’s great is you can also see the benefit of him playing at Edinburgh for seven years has had on his set piece game. He is really strong at set piece as well which is not normally something you associate with a Fijian who has his abilities and qualities in the loose.”
While Bristol are without Joe Batley and Josh Caulfield in the second row to provide a headache for Lam, their backrow is stacked with quality options with Santi Grondona returning from international duty with Argentina fully fit. James Dun is fit to lock down in the engine room and it would come as no surprise to see Steven Luatua or Mata join him.
Discussing Grondona, Lam said: “Flanker is an attritional position so we were quite pleased that he wasn’t involved in Argentina’s last game, just travelling as the 24th man. He had a good Autumn, they should have beaten Ireland, but he has come back fresh.”
In the backline, AJ MacGinty has returned unscathed from the USA’s Autumn internationals to take the reins at number 10 this weekend. With Harry Randall sitting out Friday’s game as part of England players’ mandatory rest, Irish international Kieran Marmion looks set to start at scrum-half after overcoming a minor injury scare in the 10-10 draw between Bristol and Australia A.
Lam said: “Kieran felt a tightness in his calf against Australia and the medics advised at half time to get him off and I said absolutely, we can’t afford to lose him with Harry Randall being out. He has been in the recovery group in training the last couple of weeks but he is expected to be ready for Quins.”