Johann van Graan clears up any confusion over Chris Harris' future

Ollie Lawrence’s miraculous recovery from a ruptured Achilles will not have any impact on Chris Harris’ season-long deal with Bath.

England midfielder Lawrence was expected to miss the start of the PREM Rugby season after suffering the injury in March, and Bath moved to sign Scotland international Chris Harris as cover under the medical dispensation ruling.

However, Lawrence has worked tirelessly to get back fit well ahead of schedule and managed a run out in last week’s pre-season friendly against Munster. This left some people questioning whether medical dispensation for Harris’ signing would still apply for the entire season.

“We signed Chris on injury dispensation. I am not going to go into the details of injury dispensation; that’s why there is a salary cap manager,” stressed van Graan.

“(Head of Recruitment) Rob Burgess is excellent in his relationship with the salary cap manager, so we are very clear as to what the rules are, and we have a very clear and direct line with him. He is aware of all the information, so we’ll crack on.

“A certain time needs to elapse from the start of the agreement. That doesn’t change anything with Chris; Chris will be with us for the season.”

Lawrence will make his second pre-season appearance on Friday night, against his former club Worcester, who will be playing their first home game in three years.

The 26-year-old has been selected at 13 in the Bath United line-up, with Harris on an extended bench.

Van Graan says Lawrence will be eased back in over the next few weeks.

“I think Ollie needs a lot of credit; he’s pushed the boundaries and has worked really hard. Again, that shows what’s possible if you believe you are going to make a return,” said the South African.

“It’ll take some time, I also want to say that. He has played 30 minutes in a training game, so it is not the case that he will be back to 80 minutes for six weekends in a row.”

Scrum-half Ben Spencer – one of seven Bath players to return to the West Country from England’s camp this week – will lead the United side against Worcester and has Max Ojomoh as a makeshift 10 alongside him.

Bath are also in action the next day, with a more youthful-looking side named for the opening match of Bath’s PREM Cup title defence against Exeter.

England U18 star James Linegar is set to make his Bath Rugby debut at fly-half, a position where Bath are short of numbers at present.