Adam Vander released and free to go

No longer required
By Duncan Wood
June 11 2002

I saw Adam after the Northampton game and he didn't look like a guy who thought he would be moving on. However, the club has announced his release and our first choice openside is looking for a new club.

Adam's departure is sudden and unexpected. It's also sad that he was never given the opportunity to say his goodbyes at the club and I'm sure that the supporters would have wanted to show their appreciation for him.

Adam joined Bristol in the summer of 1999, one of a posse of ex Richmond players recruited by Bob Dwyer as the Aussie sought to build a squad ready to compete in the Zurich Premiership. He was joined by the likes of Spencer Brown, Lee Best, Agustin Pichot, Andrew Sheridan and Darren Crompton.

His first season was interrupted slightly by injury but he still made enough of an impact to represent England at Sevens and managed 9 tries from 21 appearances despite competition from Craig Short.

However, 2000-1 was probably his best season when he made more appearances than anyone else (26 starts and 2 tries) and really made the openside position his own. How he missed out on representative honours baffled most Bristol supporters.

This season saw him again impressing at openside and he remained very much the first choice despite a couple of niggling injuries.

However, it all went sour away at Leeds. Suffering from stomach flu, he limped out of the game after about 30 minutes to be replaced by Chris Morgan. The following week, Mike Lipman started at London Irish and hasn't looked back. News filtered through about his car accident before the Quins game and he's been out ever since.

It would appear that with his contract having run out, there was sufficient doubt about him recovering from the car accident for the club to release him. Apparently, he was offered a new 2 year deal back in March but negotiations ground to a halt. He had returned to training briefly last week according to the Evening Post.

The emergence of Michael Lipman and the potential of Chris Morgan is obviously where the club considers the openside future lies. It's only a short while ago that Dean Ryan was speaking in glowing terms about him.

On his day, Adam was as good as any in England. He was quick and had good hands providing a vital link between forwards and backs. He turned over countless ball on the ground and always had an eye for the try line.

I sincerely hope that his rugby career isn't over and he'll return to the first class game. He was one of the first people I interviewed for this website 2 years ago and I'm grateful to him for that.

All the best Adam.