{"id":799735,"date":"2026-10-12T02:32:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T02:32:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/799735\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T02:32:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T02:32:19","slug":"pat-lam-held-back-three-players-for-fear-of-injury-on-saracens-pitch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/799735\/","title":{"rendered":"Pat Lam held back three players for fear of injury on Saracens pitch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>  Published: 17 hours ago | 11 October 2026 04:45 EDT  <\/p>\n<p>mens<\/p>\n<p>gallagher-premiership<\/p>\n<p>    Bristol Bears&#8217; Director of Rugby Pat Lam during the Gallagher PREM match between Bristol Bears and Saracens at Ashton Gate on May 9, 2026 in Bristol, England. (Photo by Bob Bradford &#8211; CameraSport via Getty Images) <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"expand\" src=\"https:\/\/eu-cdn.rugbypass.com\/images\/common-svg\/select-arrow.svg\" height=\"6\" width=\"11\"\/>      <a href=\"https:\/\/google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rugbypass.com%2F\" onclick=\"GATracking.sendDataLayerEvent(&#039;preferredsourcegoogle&#039;);\" aria-label=\"Google Prefered Source\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791772338_687_google_preferred_source_badge_light.png\" alt=\"Google Prefered Source\" width=\"141\" height=\"44\" class=\"google-source\"\/> <\/a>     <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/saracens\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Saracens<\/a> head coach Joe Shaw insisted Maro Itoje\u2019s summer break has given him a \u201cnew lease of life\u201d after watching the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/england\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">England<\/a> captain star in a 30-7 victory over Bristol.<\/p>\n<p>Itoje was named man of the match in a bonus-point Gallagher Prem rout of the Bears at the StoneX Stadium as he continues to benefit from being stood down from England\u2019s July tour.<\/p>\n<p>The 31-year-old played blindside flanker rather than his customary position of second-row and reacted to the positional switch with a high-energy performance full of high-impact defending.<\/p>\n<p>Shaw said: \u201cMaro was unbelievable. England and the club have given him a new lease of life by giving him the summer off. It\u2019s the first one he\u2019s had since he was 19.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe had a full pre-season with us. He\u2019s been able to stay with his family and properly recover from what was a long season during which some things happened in his personal life.<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791772338_32_111.png.webp\"\/>  <\/p>\n<p> 22m Entries <\/p>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791772339_542_102.png.webp\"\/>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/live\/bristol-vs-saracens\/stats\/?g=952959\/\" class=\"link-box\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">   <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s as fresh as a daisy. He\u2019s training so well. His body\u2019s in good nick. It\u2019ll benefit not just us, but it\u2019ll benefit England in the long run going into next year\u2019s World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Itoje was well supported by fellow seasoned campaigners Owen Farrell and Ben Earl while Noah Caluori and Jack Bracken brought youthful energy to the wings, scoring one try each.<\/p>\n<p>Shaw is backing Caluori and Bracken, who are both 20, to shine together for England in the future. Caluori made his Test debut on the July tour, while Bracken is uncapped.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are bright stars. We know Noah scores tries, he\u2019s world class in the air and this was his first game since coming back,\u201d Shaw said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJack has something which scares everyone \u2013 electrifying pace. They are try-scorers. They are big men. They can beat people.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEngland are spoilt for players on the outside \u2013 as we are at our club \u2013 but why can\u2019t they play for England? They are both bright stars who could turn into superstars.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/bristol\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bristol<\/a> boss Pat Lam revealed he rested Pedro Rubiolo, AJ MacGinty and Steven Luatua for the trip to north London rather than risk them getting injured on Saracens\u2019 artificial pitch.<\/p>\n<p>Lam said: \u201cThey came off big injuries last year and so it wasn\u2019t worth putting them on that pitch.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we were playing the game at home or if it was a semi-final, they would have played.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published: 17 hours ago | 11 October 2026 04:45 EDT mens gallagher-premiership Bristol Bears&#8217; Director of Rugby Pat&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":799736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-799735","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\/799735","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=799735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}