Pat Lam has explained why he has made the slightly surprising decision to release England U20 international Alex Groves.
In a ‘ruthless’ sink or swim environment, the Bears director of rugby explained the towering second row has not made the breakthrough into the Bristol Bears first team he had hoped and so has been immediately released from his contract at the club having signed a two-year academy deal back in 2020.
Lam said: “When we looked at it and weighed up everyone at this stage of the season and he is not what we are looking for.”
Bristol are currently well-stocked at second row, with Samoan international captain Chris Vui, now regular Bears captain Joe Joyce, former England international Dave Attwood, athletic first team regular Ed Holmes and emerging talent John Hawkins as options, while Sam Jeffries can also play in the engine room, however much was hoped of Groves.
Lam added: “He will have other options going forward.
“When he came from South Africa we pushed hard to get him in to the [England] U20s for a development block, but ultimately you have to make these calls.
“Someone else will be keen for us to come through, when we compared him to Charlie Rice, a homegrown player, Charlie is the player we have gone for.”
Groves was part of the England U20s squad that won the U20s Six Nations with a Grand Slam in the summer.
But now, 18-year-old Rice, has been called into the England set-up and came off the bench in their opening Six Nations win over Scotland on Friday night. Rice, who played for the Bears in the Premiership Rugby Cup earlier this season, will also start on the bench against Italy this weekend.
Lam said the decision was made amongst a backdrop of the Bears making calls on a number of young academy and senior players.
Lam said: “We made the call now because some players are getting approaches.
“Certainly with the academy guys we are giving them enough time to prepare, but we are making calls on those young guys so they have options in this early stage of their career to go elsewhere, another club, or BUCs or in the Championship.”
Bristol have restructured their academy in recent years and are seeing significant rewards from their labour, with the current crop of U18s on the verge of claiming a spot in the final of the Premiership youth competition, sitting top of the Premiership Academy League Southern Conference, having historically been canon foder to the Premiership’s big guns.
Lam said: “When you talk about investment, it is about giving them time to prove themselves, but we are pretty ruthless at the moment.
“We have high expectations now, before they used to give out four-year deals in the academy, but now what we have done is make a lot more one plus one deals. Before we sensed some guys in the academy were cruising but we have a culture now where when you come in everything is available for you to excel, you have to go out and do it.
“You look at Fitz Harding, you put the work in and you will get it done.
“It is a bit of a test.”
Lam continued: “ It is a revolving door, if we let someone go it doesn’t mean your career is over, you have just had a setback and it is about how you bounce back from it. You might be successful somewhere else but that adversity creates reliance and that is what we are trying to create in our young players.
“We have raised the standard and raised the bar and as a result we have better players coming through.”
