Bristol Bears host Saracens at Ashton Gate on Saturday in Round 15 of the 2025/26 Gallagher PREM
(Image: PA)
Welsh star full-back Louis Rees-Zammit and Argentina international Santi Grondona are back in the selection mix for Bristol Bears ’ make-or-break play-off race game with Saracens on Saturday evening.
Rees-Zammit has recovered from a training ground knee injury, while Grondona has been absent with a calf strain.
The Bears come into the match sitting fifth in the table, just one point behind Exeter Chiefs, who are sat in the final play-off place. Saracens still harbour a glimmer of hope of being involved in the conversation, trailing Bristol by six points.
But while two internationals are set to return this weekend, Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam confirmed that Argentina international number eight Benjamin Grondona and England international hooker Gabriel Oghre have both been ruled out for the rest of the season following the injuries they sustained up at Newcastle Red Bulls last time out.
Lam said: “Gabe Oghre twisted his knee on that artificial pitch, so he’s had surgery, and he’s gone for the season.
“What happened to Oghre was 100 per cent the pitch because he lands, his foot gets stuck, and he gets twisted trying to jump someone.
“Ben Grondona, again, when he went down, got caught in a tackle there, so he’s torn a bit of his pectoral, so he’s out for the rest of the season.”
Providing an update on his trio of players who suffered hamstring injuries at Newcastle, Lam said: “Rich Lane, he’s not too bad. Joe Batley and Noah Heward, those boys are back training but on modifications, so we’ll see what happens with those guys. At least it wasn’t as bad as we originally thought. Santiago Grondona’s back in training, and Louis Rees-Zammit’s back in training.”
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Lam also shed light on the fitness status of Irish international Kieran Marmion and Georgian flanker Luka Ivanishvili, who were both named on the club’s unavailable list for the 52-19 win up at Kingston Park but are in fact fully fit, with the forward actually drafted onto the bench for that game after Batley pulled up in the warm-up.
Lam explained: “Because of our injuries this season, the EQP (England Qualified Player) numbers have been one of the biggest issues.
“You have to average 15 in a matchday 23 over the season, and we’re below that at the moment. I’m trying to catch up on that because you have to finish the season with that average. In some games, I need to make sure I’ve got more than 15 English players in the squad.”
So Marmion missed out, with English-qualified Sam Wolstenholm getting a run out as the replacement scrum half option.
A club that misses the EPQ quotas can face fines of up to £250,000.
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