'Chiropractor' will add backbone to Bristol ambitions

"I'm still waiting on Jacob Rauluni [the Fijian Test scrum-half ] but he should be here by the end of the week," said the Bristol coach, Richard Hill. "That will complete the set-up, and we will finally be able to start training and preparing as a full squad. Our sole focus is on staying in the Premiership, on being in this league this time next year, and these new players have been brought in specifically to help us achieve that goal. I believe they bring the right qualities and will contribute hugely to what we are trying to build here."

Lima, a veteran of four World Cup campaigns, admits to being 33, although it would surprise no one to discover that this figure errs on the side of youth. David Lemi, his fellow islander and one of the more prolific scorers on the International Rugby Board's world seven-a-side circuit, also plays on the wing and, at 23, is considered one of the hottest talents in Pacific rugby. Hill signed him on Lima's recommendation.

The third recruit, the Buenos Aires-born prop Martin Rospide, has won four caps for the Pumas, and while a number of more celebrated Argentinian front-rowers - Mauricio Reggiardo, Omar Hasan, Federico Mendez, Rodrigo Roncero - have given him little in the way of a look-in over the last couple of years, Hill is convinced Bristol's long and often frustrating search for an international-class tight-head specialist has reached a conclusion.

"We did a lot of research on this," he said. "There were props available, some of them very big names indeed, but they were very expensive and my information was that they were more likely to play for themselves than for the club when the going got tough. The Argentinians already here - Bernardo Stortoni, Manuel Contepomi, Mariano Sambucetti - are brilliant characters, people with the right work ethic who play like professionals but have the hearts of amateurs. That encapsulates our spirit and from what I know of Martin, he will fit in perfectly."

Lima, Lemi and Rospide will be formally registered over the next 48 hours and should be available for this weekend, when Bristol play Gloucester in a sell-out Memorial Ground derby.