{"id":608715,"date":"2026-05-28T15:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T15:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/608715\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T15:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T15:51:09","slug":"bears-confirm-12-players-to-leave-at-end-of-2025-26-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/608715\/","title":{"rendered":"Bears confirm 12 players to leave at end of 2025\/26 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bristol Bears will pay tribute to the 12 players who are set to depart the club at the conclusion of the 2025\/26 season.<\/p>\n

As in previous seasons, supporters will have the opportunity to celebrate and thank these players on Friday night following the round 17 clash against Bath at Ashton Gate.<\/p>\n

Full-back Rich Lane brings an end to a five-year spell with the Bears, during which he made 69 appearances and scored 12 tries after joining from Bedford Blues in 2021.<\/p>\n

Bristolian James Dun is another to depart after 68 appearances for his hometown club. The 26-year-old leaves after eight seasons.<\/p>\n

Argentinian back-row Santiago Grondona leaves after two seasons and 31 appearances for the club. The Puma scored six tries for the Bears, including a memorable double at The Rec in 2024.<\/p>\n

Centre Joe Jenkins departs after making 32 appearances for the club since joining in 2022, while Argentina international Benjamin Elizalde departs after 27 appearances for the Bears.<\/p>\n

Loosehead prop Sam Grahamslaw (24 apps) will also leave the club at the end of the season, as will scrum-half Sam Wolstenholme, the 2023\/24 Team Man of the Season, after three season and 20 appearances for the Bears.<\/p>\n

Steele Barker (10 apps), John Edwards (4 apps), Toby Baker (3 apps) and Raff Weston (2 apps) will also leave at the conclusion of the season.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Director of Rugby, Pat Lam, said: \u201cThis stage of the season is always a difficult one because we\u2019re saying goodbye to players and people who have made a huge contribution to Bristol Bears both on and off the field during their time here.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery one of these players have put their bodies on the line and shown tremendous commitment to our Bears Vision and should be proud of what they\u2019ve achieved at the club. They will always remain part of the Bears family.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we have done over the past nine seasons, we\u2019ll recognise and celebrate our departing players together as a group this week, and supporters will also have the chance to show their appreciation at Ashton Gate after the Bath game on Friday, May 29th, when the players will be presented with their Bears matchday jerseys.\u201d<\/p>\n

LEAVERS<\/p>\n

Senior squad:<\/p>\n

Rich Lane (69 apps)<\/p>\n

James Dun\u00a0(68 apps)<\/p>\n

Joe Jenkins\u00a0(32 apps)<\/p>\n

Santiago Grondona (31 apps)<\/p>\n

Ben Elizalde (27 apps)<\/p>\n

Sam Grahamslaw (24 apps)<\/p>\n

Sam Wolstenholme (20 apps)<\/p>\n

Steele Barker (10 apps)<\/p>\n

Will Capon (99 apps)<\/p>\n

Senior Academy players:<\/p>\n

Toby Baker (3 apps)<\/p>\n

Raff Weston\u00a0(2 apps)<\/p>\n

John Edwards\u00a0(4 apps)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bristol Bears will pay tribute to the 12 players who are set to depart the club at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-608715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}