'You know, would we like Ellis Genge to come home? Course, we would'

Pat Lam made a midweek appearance on BT Sport’s Rugby Tonight and walked straight into a transfer speculation ambush.

The UK television station interviewed England prop Ellis Genge earlier in the season and asked the Bristol-born forward if would ever consider moving home from current club Leicester.

Genge answered in the affirmative, that he would indeed like to get an offer from Ashton Gate were he to ever leave Welford Road later in his career.

Halfway though an appearance by Bristol coach Lam on the show, presenter Ugo Moyne moved the subject to Genge.

He played the clip of the player’s interview regarding his wish to go back to Bristol and then proceeded to put the Samoan on the spot – would he be keen on signing the England international?

Bristol Bears want local guys to be local heroes.@EllisGenge is a local guy ?

Could we possibly a return to his hometown club in the near future?@ugomonye the matchmaker ?#RugbyTonight pic.twitter.com/ldGF7QxJFo

— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) May 15, 2019

Here’s how the conversation played out:

UGO MOYNE: “Pat, you have mentioned something in your mission statement in terms of local guys becoming local heroes. Well, we had a local guy on Rugby Tonight early this season and we spoke to him about his potential moving back to Bristol, whether he would be up for it. Have a listen to what Ellis Genge said.

BEN KAY:“Can you see yourself playing for Bristol Bears again?”

ELLIS GENGE: “Yeah. Bristol is home for me. All my family, I miss them a lot. As opposed to the tail end of my career going to France or Japan… I’d like to go to Bristol if I was to move somewhere else.”

UM: “Well, there is Ellis Genge. He’s not a bad player. He’s a local lad. A potential local superstar. England international. The kind of player you would be looking for?

PAT LAM: “Oh, without a doubt. There is a lot of class players that are available and you go through…” (Moyne cuts across Lam’s answer).

UM: “Would you be keen on signing Ellis Genge because he sounds like he is keen to come to Bristol?”

PL: “Yeah, no, of course. Everything comes back to salary cap and working out the whole balance of the squad because again, you know, everyone has their price. But when you are looking after recruitment you have got to make good decisions based on the whole squad, not based on putting it all in one area. You have got to look at what we need. You know, would we like Ellis Genge to come home? Course, we would.”

WATCH: The RugbyPass pre-season documentary on Bristol Bears