Bristol Bears host Exeter Chiefs at Ashton Gate on Saturday in Round Four of the 2026/27 Gallagher PREM

Bristol Bears director of rugby Pat Lam faces a tricky selection call heading into this weekend’s Gallagher PREM clash with Exeter Chiefs, with half a dozen key players described as still being 50/50 calls to make the match.

England internationals Ellis Genge, Gabriel Oghre, George Kloska and Benhard Janse van Rensbury, along with Scotland’s Tom Jordan and tighthead Max Lahiff, are all touch and go to make Saturday’s league clash at Ashton Gate, with the Bears boss keeping his cards close to his chest.

Reading between the lines, it could well transpire that the majority of the listed players miss the ‘Derby Weekend’ game, with loosehead prop Genge recovering from a sprained wrist, hooker Oghre out with a tight calf, prop Kloska suffering a muscle strain in his leg in the defeat against Saracens two weeks ago, and full-back Jordan nursing a minor muscle strain in his leg.

Prop Max Lahiff, who can play on both sides of the scrum, is on the verge of a return from a foot injury while Benhard Janse van Rensburg, who signed a new contract extension with the club in the week, is waiting to be signed off by the doctors, having been given a 20-day stand-down period as part of his Return to Play protocols after knocking himself out on Henry Pollock’s leg in the 41-26 victory against Northampton. That game was 20 days ago today.

Discussing van Rensburg, Lam said: “You have to go through all the protocols and so forth, and then you have to get that cleared by our medics and independent medics as well, so we're just on that process at the moment.

“If you ask him, he's frustrated; he wanted to play last week, and he wants to go this week. But we are taking no risk; I leave that all to the medical team, and once he's cleared to play, he'll be straight back in.

“At the moment he's out there training, he just can't do any contact at the moment. And that's what frustrates him; he wants to smash everything that moves!

“We are just waiting for him to get the green light.”

Discussing his wider group of missing first team regulars, Lam said, “There are still a few boys with niggles and stuff, so we're just managing the group. Players like Genge, BV, we're just still managing those guys, and so we'll see how it goes.

"Ellis is borderline, and we'll make that final call tomorrow. I think the good thing is that whatever we bring out on Saturday is a team good enough to win the game.”

Having sent a second-string squad out to South Africa to face the Stormers in the one-off round of the Champions Cup, Lam is set to welcome back the likes of Harry Randall, AJ MacGinty, Louis Rees-Zammit and Steven Luatua who were given a week off.

And Lam said many of the players who went to Cape Town did themselves no harm. He said: “There are some players who played really well over there as well and put their hand up.

“I just look at who's available, and then we've just got to make the decisions on some of the borderline calls probably over the next 24 hours. But I'm in a really comfortable place that the guys that are sitting next in line and so forth, there's good competition there.”