How injury crisis made Bristol Bears stronger

Barely 80 minutes into the Prem season, Bristol Bears lost their first-choice scrum-half, fly-half and top-scoring wing to long-term injuries.

In the weeks and games that followed, the number of casualties increased.

At the worst of the injury crisis, Bristol had 15 backs unavailable and struggled to put a training session together.

Players were signed on short-term loans, academy players were thrown into matches and director of rugby Pat Lam conceded their odds of reaching the end-of-season play-offs had already shot up.

Fast forward to mid-March and the Bears are third in the table, having enjoyed one of their best-ever winters.

They return to Prem action on Sunday at Leicester, having won their past five league matches stretching back to the end of November, wiht victories in three out of four Champions Cup games in between.

“We all hear these statements about things you can’t control but it’s how you adapt and react to it,” Lam told BBC Sport.

“The best thing that happened to us after we lost those three boys [Harry Randall, Gabriel Ibitoye and AJ MacGinty] in round one was playing Saracens full strength – they gave us as spanking that day [scoring] 50 points.

In a contact sport like rugby union, every team will have to manage multiple injuries at some point in a campaign.

But the number of players Bristol had missing stretched their squad, which was already smallest in the league, to the limit.

Prop Jake Woolmore said: “Sometimes we were in meetings and it felt empty because nobody was here, the internationals were away for bits and you’re like: “Do we have a squad?’

“It was a bit strange.”

Training sessions when coaches struggled to put two teams together could also be “tough”.

Woolmore added: “Everyone you’ve got fit is probably in the starting XV and then you’ve got boys running all over the shop in the opposition – everyone has to step up.

“You might have props running on the wing for a session or for a drill, everyone’s just got to hunker down that week and do their part.

“You then have to ‘cotton wool’ the guys who are fit, because we can’t afford anyone [else to go].”

Captain Fitz Harding said stripping their gameplan back to basics was the best thing they could do.

“When we’re missing key game drivers, the most important thing is we’re all on the same page,” he said.

Lam has repeatedly said that when a player becomes unavailable, they do not linger on what they have lost, but rather look to who is next in line to step up.

Frequently, that meant calling on academy players to fill holes.

Against Northampton in November, four academy players featured in the matchday 23.

Hooker Tomas Gwilliam was making his Prem debut, while back Aidan Boshoff and prop Jimmy Halliwell had played just four top-flight games between them. Bristol went on to thrash Saints 46-12.

Academy fly-half Sam Worsley similarly filled in during the absences of MacGinty and Scotland international Tom Jordan for five games during the autumn.

The 22-year-old, who began the season playing for Dings Crusaders in the third-tier National League One, kicked a last-minute penalty to seal a narrow win against Exeter.

He then scored a try and kicked 14 points in the victory against Gloucester – one of two games in which he was named player of the match.

“When young lads step up who haven’t necessarily had loads of gametime and put in a performance that leads to a result, it just fills the group with confidence about where we are as a whole squad,” Harding said.

While fielding so many developing players would not have necessarily been the plan at the start of the season, the sink-or-swim approach has helped create strength in depth now the campaign is reaching its crunch point.

Add into that players who have returned from injury in recent weeks and it is no wonder the mood around the Bears’ camp as the league returns is optimistic.

“Training was tasty [on Wednesday] and that’s because everyone wants it, it also feels like they’ve earned a shot now as well,” Woolmore said.

Lam reiterated that the injury crisis has been the biggest challenge he has faced as a coach.

Even when it seemed the worst was behind them, during the eight-week Prem break came news that Bristol’s two first-choice locks Joe Batley and Pablo Rubiolo were ruled out – Rubiolo for the rest of the season.

Injuries seem destined to be the story of the team’s season, whatever happens between now and June.

Bristol have fielded 43 players in the Prem so far – fewer than only Northampton (44), Gloucester (45) and Harlequins (46) – and Harding believes the fact so many have contributed has also bonded the group together more.

“It’s so nice for the squad to feel that they all had a big input into where the team is,” he said.