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Bristol Bears facing the prospect of losing Charles Piutau for an extended period

By Alex Shaw
Charles Piutau looking to impress at Bristol Bears. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Bristol Bears’ hopes of making a flying start to the return to their Gallagher Premiership have taken a significant blow after Charles Piutau was removed just 13 minutes after arriving on the pitch in the club’s final preseason friendly.

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Piutau left the field with his arm in a sling on Saturday, as Bristol lost 12-14 to Connacht at Ashton Gate.

Even in an ideal scenario it would be a race against time to be fit for Bristol’s opener with Bath on Friday evening but RugbyPass understands that the injury could be much more serious, with one source suggesting a 4-6-month layoff for the former All Black.

The club have yet to confirm the severity of the injury, but director of rugby Pat Lam did acknowledge following the game that Piutau had damaged his shoulder.

Speaking to the Bristol Bears official website, Lam stated that it “looks like a shoulder (injury), so at the moment the medical team are with Charles and we’re hoping it’s not too serious and we’ll update everyone when we know a bit more.”

If Piutau were to miss a significant portion of the season, it would be a sizeable bump in the road in Bristol’s bid to consolidate their place in the Premiership, with only Worcester Warriors deemed a more likely candidate for the drop by the majority of bookmakers.

The signing of Piutau was seen as a statement of intent by the club and his displays for the All Blacks, and more recently Wasps and Ulster, were enough to suggest that he could be a difference-maker for Bristol in what will undoubtedly be a hard-contested relegation battle.

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Luke Daniels, a summer signing from Ealing Trailfinders, and Luke Morahan, a former Australian international, would both be candidates to fill the void, should the Kiwi have to spend an extended period on the sidelines.

He was not the only player to suffer in the final weeks of preseason, with Wasps’ Jimmy Gopperth set to miss the majority of the 2018/19 season after undergoing a knee reconstruction following an injury also suffered against Connacht, whilst Northampton Saints’ new signing Dan Biggar left the field after just two minutes in his side’s friendly with Glasgow Warriors.

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Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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