Jason will be last to walk away from us say Bristol

BRISTOL chairman Chris Booy insists there will be no more ‘get out’ clauses on offer after revealing that star full-back Jason Woodward is set to leave.

Only the unlikely scenario of Ealing winning the Championship play-offs can save Bristol from relegation, meaning Woodward is free to pursue top-flight rugby elsewhere.

However, Booy says high profile summer signings Steven Luatua, Luke Morahan, Ian Madigan and Alapati Leiua will arrive as planned and reckons Bristol will rampage through next season’s Championship under incoming rugby director Pat Lam.

Booy told TRP: “I don’t know what Jason’s plans are. He had an offer from us but he will probably move on. We’ll honour that, but going forward there won’t be any of those deals on the table.

“Good luck to Jason, he’s a good player who’s done well for us, but there’ll not be any more get-out clauses at Bristol. You either sign up for our journey and believe in what we’re doing over the long-term or we won’t agree anything with that player.”

On where Bristol went wrong this season, Booy said: “We didn’t get our recruitment right. We’ve got good players who were competitive, but we didn’t have the extra edge other teams enjoy with four or five top internationals.

“We’ll be much stronger now. We’ve signed players we should have last season and when you’re looking at guys like Luatua, Leiua, Madigan and Morahan, with Siale Piutau and others to come, these players make a big difference.

“They’re all contracted and there’s no question they’re up for the fight. They were brought in on a three-year journey so they’ll have a year to get us up, a year to establish themselves in the Premiership and then we want to be in Europe.”

Booy added: “We’ve also signed some younger players because part of Pat Lam’s skill is development. We’ll use the Championship to make academy guys like Billy Searle, Callum Sheedy and Andy Uren even better.”