Pat Lam provides positive Ellis Genge report despite missing England camp

Bristol Bears coach Pat Lam has revealed that loosehead Ellis Genge wasn’t involved in England’s 36-man three-day camp this week after being given extra time after his summer toil in the Nations Championship.

The England vice-captain played all 12 of their tests last season, and Lam says that he was given an extra week off to recover from his massive workload.

And he says that Genge is “looking fresh” and that he fully supports the decision that was made by Red Rose boss Steve Borthwick earlier in the summer.

“We gave Ellis an extra week off. Obviously had a big workload in the Nations Championship. So Steve gave me the heads up on the back of that and, you know, we just supported it.

“He is still coming back and graduated to play from his holidays and breaks. Steve had a chat to tell us about it, and he gave me a call about it, and it was all good. So he’s certainly looking fresh,” said Lam.

Fixture

Nations Championship

England

07:10

8 Nov 26

Australia

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The Bears will be without their two first-choice hookers, Harry Thacker and Gabriel Oghre, for the trip to Exeter Chiefs in the PREM Rugby Cup this weekend. Thacker is recovering from being stretchered off against Gloucester.

While Oghre is now back in full training after undergoing an operation on a knee injury towards the end of last season, he hopes both will be back for the opening game of the Gallagher PREM season, which is just two weeks away.

Meanwhile, Lam confirmed that Argentina international outside centre Matias Moroni has fractured his cheekbone and could be out for up to six weeks if he needs an operation.

“He had a fracture in his cheekbone, so they’ve just got to go through that. We are waiting for the specialist to sit down and decide whether they have surgery or not off the back of it. So that could be four, five, six weeks potentially,” added Lam.