Pat Lam warns local rivals to expect Benhard Janse van Rensburg backlash

Bristol Bears boss Pat Lam has confirmed that England centre Benhard Janse van Rensburg won’t play again until December after being stood down for six weeks.

Van Rensburg, 29, has received two significant concussions in his last three games, the most recent of which saw him knocked unconscious when attempting a tackle on England colleague Henry Pollock against Northampton on October 3.

The South African-born centre, who made his Test debut against Fiji in July, will miss the second phase of the Nations Championship, but Lam says that he will be back for the trip to The Rec to face Bath on December 4.

He says that Van Rensburg is training with the rest of his Bears squad but has to sit out contact work for another fortnight and will be held back from playing again until the next block of Gallagher PREM fixtures.

“We were told ideally, four to six weeks, but preferred the six weeks. So we’re in week four now. So he’ll be ready to go when we come back for Bath, 100 per cent.

“He’s been in training, and he’s out there again today. He did all the skills work. The only thing is, they asked not to do contact work. Obviously, the six weeks gives them a bit more time to build into the contact.

“He was keen to come back to after the normal protocol, and then the independent medical advisor wanted a bit more time on it. BV really wanted to play last week, because he’d sort of heard the four to six weeks. But everyone wanted to go on the more cautious side, and I supported that as well.

“He’s extremely frustrated and I’m pretty sure, off-site, he is probably hitting something somewhere. But he’ll be ready to go all guns blazing for round six,” Lam said on his midweek media call.