Pat Lam has shot down reports that Bristol Bears will look to keep Saracens pair Max Malins and Ben Earl beyond their agreed upon season-long loans.
Lam has already got more than they bargained for when he agreed the deal with the pair playing the entire second half of the 2019/20 season which was restarted in August after a five month lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Bears director of rugby said The Rugby Paper’s report that he is looking to keep the pair of England internationals beyond the 2020/21 season is ‘an absolute joke.’
With Gloucester Rugby managing to negotiate England hooker Jack Singleton’s loan move into a permanent deal, the paper suggested Lam will look to do the same thing with flanker Earl and full back Malins who have both excelled since arriving at the Bears in summer, helping the club to lift the European Challenge Cup in October and climb to the top of the table in the Gallagher Premiership in 2020/21, with just seven rounds completed.
Lam addressed the speculation head on: “It is just a joke, an absolute joke.
“Those boys are Saracens players, they are contracted to Saracens and we loaned them for one year. It is very clear.
“Of course they are enjoying it, and of course we are enjoying having them here, but it is a mutual thing.
“They put their full heart and soul into their rugby and buy into our culture at the Bears and we put our heart and soul into preparing them and developing them, but it was always very clear from the beginning that they would go back to Saracens because they have got long term contracts with Saracens.
“So all of this speculation is funny to read and it is not right as all.”
Both Earl and Malins signed long term contracts until the end of the 2022/23 season before going out on loan to Bristol.
Lam added: “That is not to say I wouldn’t love them to stay but at the end of the day contracts [are binding].”
Both men will be away for the entirety of the 2021 Guinness Six Nations which starts this weekend when England take on Scotland at Twickenham in the Calcutta Cup.
They will next be available for selection for the Bears on March 27 when Bristol host Harlequins.
