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Bristol sign one of Cheika's 'outstanding' Argentina back-rowers

By Liam Heagney
(Photo by Cesar Heredia/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)

Having reportedly missed out on signing Argentina back row Juan Martin Gonzalez Samso, who joined Saracens earlier this week, Bristol have instead signed Samo’s Pumas teammate, Santiago Grondona.

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Both players were named on Thursday by Michael Cheika to start in this Saturday’s Rugby Championship clash with the Springboks in Johannesburg.

In the meantime, the Bears have confirmed that Grondona, the ex-Exeter forward who finished out last season with Pau in the Top 14, will be lining out for them after the upcoming Rugby World Cup in their 2023/24 Gallagher Premiership campaign.

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A statement read: “Powerhouse Argentinian back row Santiago Grondona has joined Bristol Bears, the club can confirm. The 14-cap Puma, who can operate across the back row and in the second row, made a mid-season switch from Exeter Chiefs to French Top 14 side Pau in February 2023.

“The 24-year-old played a starring role for Argentina in their dramatic last-gasp victory over Australia, making 10 tackles as the Pumas won 31-34.”

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Bristol director of rugby Lam said: “Santiago is a versatile, powerful back row forward and we are pleased to bring in a player of his quality to bolster the depth in our pack ahead of the new season.

“He has been outstanding in international rugby over the past 12 months and continues to go from strength to strength. He will add huge value to us on and off the field and we look forward to him joining up with the squad.”

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Grondona added: “I am very eager to arrive in Bristol to meet my new teammates, and I’m really looking forward to working with Pat.

“Playing at Ashton Gate in front of our fans is going to be amazing too and I will give everything to make sure we achieve our goals this season.”

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Nickers 1 hour ago
The changes Scott Robertson must make to address All Blacks’ bench woes

Hopefully Robertson and co aren't applying this type of thinking to their selections, although some of their moves this year have suggested that might be the case.


The first half of Foster's tenure, when he was surrounded by coaches who were not up to the task, was disastrous due to this type of reactionary chopping and changing. No clear plan of the direction of travel or what needs to be built to get there. Just constant tinkering. A player gets dropped one week, on the bench the next, back to starting the next, dropped for the next week again. Add in injuries and other variations of this selection pattern, combined with vastly different game plans from one week to the next and it's no wonder the team isn't clicking on attack and are making incredibly basic errors on both sides of the ball.


When Schmidt and Ryan got involved selections became far more consistent and the game plan far simpler and the dividends were instant, and they accepted bad performances as part of building towards the world cup. They were able to distinguish between bad plans and bad execution and by the time the finals rolled around they were playing their best rugby as a team.


Chopping and changing the team each week sends the signal that you don't really know what you are doing or why, and you are just reacting to what happened last week, selecting a team to replay the previous game rather than preparing for the next one and building for the future.

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