{"id":815073,"date":"2026-10-27T03:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T03:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/815073\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T03:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T03:38:12","slug":"bristol-bears-sign-sacked-saracens-star-with-immediate-effect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/815073\/","title":{"rendered":"Bristol Bears sign sacked Saracens star with immediate effect"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bristol Bears have handed former Saracens forward Totoa Auvaa a rugby lifeline, just two weeks after the 21-year-old was sacked by the London club.<\/p>\n

The powerful Samoan back-rower has been given a fresh start by Pat Lam, who believes the youngster deserves another chance to prove himself.<\/p>\n

Auvaa was dismissed by Saracens earlier this month<\/a> following an off-field incident.<\/p>\n

His departure came just months after he was involved in a separate nightclub altercation involving England cricketers Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson.<\/p>\n

However, Bristol have now offered the 21-year-old a route back into the Gallagher PREM.<\/p>\n

Pat Lam explains decision to sign Totoa Auvaa<\/p>\n

Bristol director of rugby and former Samoa captain Pat Lam has explained why he decided to take a chance on the youngster.<\/p>\n

Lam admitted Auvaa had made mistakes but believes the right support could help him get his career back on track.<\/p>\n

He said: “Totoa is a big, physical young man with enormous potential, who unfortunately has made some mistakes since arriving from a small village in Samoa to the massive city of London.<\/p>\n

“His agent reached out to me, to see if I would be willing to help him and give him a second chance. I’ve always believed that young people deserve the opportunity to learn from those experiences, grow and become better people.”<\/p>\n

Lam also revealed that he had spent time getting to know Auvaa before agreeing to the move.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

“Having spent time with Totoa, I feel confident that we can provide him with the mentorship, guidance, support and structure to give him the best possible opportunity to succeed, not just as a rugby player, but as a person. Someone his parents and family all the way back in Samoa will be proud of.<\/p>\n

“He has a huge amount of ability and we’re looking forward to helping him develop, make the most of this opportunity and become a valued member of the Bears family.”<\/p>\n

Why Saracens sacked Totoa Auvaa<\/p>\n

Auvaa’s move to Bristol comes after a difficult few months at Saracens.<\/p>\n

The London club confirmed his departure earlier in October following an incident in St Albans.<\/p>\n

In an official club statement<\/a>, Saracens made clear that his conduct had fallen below the standards expected of their players.<\/p>\n

It followed an earlier nightclub incident involving England cricket stars Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson.<\/p>\n

The two cricketers were subsequently cleared of violent conduct by the England an<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bristol Bears have handed former Saracens forward Totoa Auvaa a rugby lifeline, just two weeks after the 21-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":815074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[266020,5903,118921,255721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-815073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-bristol-bears-rugby-news","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-news","tag-rugby-transfer-news","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815073","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=815073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}