Bears' fitness not in question - Lam

BRISTOL boss Pat Lam has absolutely no concerns over the fitness of his players in the wake of Steve Borthwick comments questioning the condition of some England squad members at the start of the Autumn Nations Series.

- JON NEWCOMBE

In the bowels of the Twickenham as he was asked to dissect yet another defeat against the Springboks, Borthwick told journalists: “At the start of this series, you looked at the condition of the players and it wasn’t quite where it needed to be for Test-match rugby, for teams stepping straight into Test-match rugby.”

Bristol have two players in the England squad in Ellis Genge and Harry Randall and Lam says there is no way that the comments would’ve been aimed at them.

“The way I saw it I think Steve was talking generally,” the former Samoa international said.

“I knew the Bristol Bears players that went into the England camp were fully fit and would probably walk into the All Blacks game, play in the South Africa game and as far as their conditioning goes, they would be ready to play Australia; they’d be able to play all of those teams.