Bristol explain latest Siva Naulago lay-off, likely Grondona debut

Bristol have confirmed the extent of the latest setback for Siva Naulago, their rampaging winger whose time at the Bears has been truncated by unfortunate absences. The 33-year-old Fijian started the new Gallagher Premiership season looking dangerous, scoring against both Newcastle and Gloucester.

However, he is now set to miss the next six weeks – at a minimum – after fracturing his cheekbone in a 63rd-minute head-on-head collision last Friday with Gloucester’s Freddie Thomas. The injury is the latest lay-off for the convert from rugby league who has an explosive try-scoring record. His score last week was his 19th try in just 36 Bristol appearances since joining from Hull, the Super League club, in 2020.

Asked how his squad was shaping up on the injury front heading into this Saturday’s derby away to Bath, director of rugby Lam said at Thursday afternoon’s media briefing: “Harry Thacker has unfortunately taken a knock, a niggle, so he won’t be here this week but he should be ready for next week (versus Exeter away). And then Siva got the head-on-head with his cheekbone and he will be out too.”

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Is it broken? “Yeah, it looks that way. We will have more info on that probably Friday. It will probably end up being at least that [a minimum six-week absence].”

Naulago will be missed as he was looking the type of player capable of firing up Bristol across their early block of Premiership matches before the November break. “Even though he has been here a long time, he has only played 36 games. That sums it up really. He is a strike weapon but this is all part of life, the resilience. You get injured, you’re out, the show goes on and it’s an opportunity to hopefully come back stronger.

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Gallagher Premiership

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“If you know his story, he has come away from Fiji and the army, he has been right through in his stay with the British army, away from home and family a long time. His whole life has built resilience so the injuries he has had in rugby, that has served him well. He is a tough character.”

On the upside, back-rower Santiago Grondona is in contention to make his delayed competitive debut for the club having arrived back in England at the start of this week after making three appearances in The Rugby Championship with Argentina, including last Saturday’s finale away to South Africa.

It was last year, ahead of the Rugby World Cup in France, when the 2023 Bristol signing sustained a serious knee injury, but Lam has now suggested he could be chucked in at The Rec for his belated competitive Bears debut as he played in two pre-season matches before before getting called up by Los Pumas.

“Santiago Grondona has come back from featuring in South Africa,” he said. “It’s good to have him back and he is available to be selected for his first game. He had a couple of pre-season games before he went. When we signed him last year just before the World Cup he had that horrific knee injury and missed that, so it has taken a big rehab but now he is back.

“He did some work in Argentina, came back and did a lot of the first part of pre-season with us… played two pre-season games with us and then went to The Rugby Championship. Felipe Contepomi was good with that and he got himself some minutes for Argentina. He is now back, knows our game and has slipped in pretty seamlessly.”