UpdateActiveItem OnPlayerRespawned

Hi, I'm new to Rust modding. Thanks for all the excellent resources on this site.
I'm struggling with trying to replicate BasePlayer.UpdateActiveItem in some code that runs from the OnPlayerRespawned hook to put an item into the player's hands on spawn.
My code runs but the player's hands stay empty:

Code:

        player.svActiveItem = player.inventory.containerBelt.FindItemByUID(item.uid);
 
                if (player.svActiveItem != null)
                {
                    HeldEntity heldentity = player.svActiveItem.GetHeldEntity() as HeldEntity;
                    if (heldentity != null)
                    {
                        if (!player.IsSleeping())
                        {
                            heldentity.SetHeld(true);
                            player.SendNetworkUpdate(BasePlayer.NetworkQueue.Update);
 
                            // don't seem to be able to get BaseCombatEntity!
                            //BaseCombatEntity combatEntity = player.GetParentEntity() as BaseCombatEntity;
                            //if (combatEntity != null)
                            //{
                            //    combatEntity.SendNetworkUpdate(BasePlayer.NetworkQueue.Update);
                            //}
                        }
                    }
                }

Can anybody point me in the right direction or suggest a plugin I can look at that already provides this? Thanks.