Sale Sharks host Bristol Bears on Friday night in Round Three of the 2026/27 PREM Rugby Cup

Bristol Bears head to Sale Sharks on Friday night in Round Three of the PREM Rugby Cup without 11 of the players who started in last weekend’s league defeat to Leicester Tigers unavailable due to international commitments.

With both England and England A playing this weekend, the Bears are without Ellis Genge and Harry Randall with the senior side, and Fitz Harding, Joe Batley and George Kloska with the A team, who face Argentina XV at the Rec, with Bears number eight Benjamin Grondona potentially lining up for the touring side.

His compatriot, lock Pedro Rubiolo, has been named in the second row for the Pumas against Argentina, with centre Matias Moroni in the wider squad but not involved this weekend.

Elsewhere, winger Louis Rees-Zammit is with Wales, Tom Jordan is with Scotland, Luka Ivanishvili is on Georgia duty, and veteran fly-half AJ MacGinty has linked up with the US Eagles camp to train and advise the squad but will not play in their Test matches as the 36-year-old targets a place at next year’s Rugby World Cup in Australia, which will take a certain degree of management of his body.

With at least another seven senior players unavailable through injury, that means the Bears, who have a bye week in Round Four next weekend, don’t have an awful lot of wriggle room with their selection heading to the CorpAcq Stadium, with Pat Lam running the smallest senior squad in the PREM.

Two men who could come off the injury list and feature this weekend are prop Max Lahiff, who has been rehabbing a foot and ankle injury, and number eight summer signing Khalik Kareem, who arrived from Worcester Warriors with a complex foot injury and is yet to make his debut.

Bristol defence coach Jordan Crane, who will lead the side this weekend in the development competition, said: "They [Lahiff and Kareem] have both been back in training; we will see whether they are ready or not this weekend, but they should be there or thereabouts this month during the PREM Rugby Cup block.

“We want to maintain our momentum and develop our game over this block, and this is now these guys’ responsibilities. If someone is coming into the second row, we want them to play like Pedro Rubiolo; you chase the ball and your efforts off the ball need to be exactly the same. That is the standard, that is the level we are chasing.

“It is a pretty good squad we have picked to go to Sale. Even with the players away on international duty, we still have an opportunity to select other players, and this is what this competition is for: creating squad depth and trust in the team, because we know to win a trophy you need that depth.”

The Bears come into the game having beaten Gloucester 43-40 in their opening PREM Rugby Cup game, but lost 45-21 away at Exeter Chiefs.

While there are going to be widespread changes to the Bears team that runs out at Sale, Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam made it clear what he expects from his side during this block, with Bath at Ashton Gate on November 20 their other fixture. Lam said: “We want to win, that is first and foremost. Some boys have had big workloads over the first five PREM games and the Champions Cup, so there are few others and academy boys who need some game time.”