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Adeolokun one of three short-term Bristol deals upgraded to one-year contracts

(Pic by INPHO via EPCR)

A trio of players who signed short-term contracts at Bristol for the conclusion of the 2019/20 Gallagher Premiership have been rewarded by Pat Lam as Niyi Adeolokun, Tom Kessell and Peter McCabe have all now signed one-year contracts to stay on with the Bears.

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Scrum-half Kessell (two appearances) and wing Adeolokun (four appearances) both featured in the Challenge Cup final win over Toulon in Aix-en-Provence last month, while prop McCabe made three appearances in the Gallagher Premiership, scoring his maiden try for the club against Wasps at the Ricoh Arena.

Director of rugby Lam said: “All three of these guys have settled into the Bears culture well and made some positive contributions on the field, so we’re pleased to have them on board for the 2020/21 campaign.

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“With another busy schedule ahead of us, and players set to be away on international duty or undergoing rehabilitation at the beginning of the new season, it’s important to ensure we have plenty of depth and cover in key positions.”

It was on August 27 following a costly Premiership defeat to eventual champions Exeter that Lam called for some reinforcements as injuries at that time to Jake Armstrong (ankle), Max Lahiff (head) and John Afoa (calf) had lightened their front row resources while wing Toby Fricker (groin) was also unavailable.

That Bristol casualty list left Lam on the lookout for short-term cover and of the players brought in, one was already very familiar to the coach as Adeolokun was part of the Connacht team that won the 2016 Guinness PRO12 with Lam at the helm prior to his 2017 move to England.  

Adeolokun, who went on to be capped by Ireland on Lam’s watch and also play for the Barbarians when the Samoan was in charge, was released by Connacht during the recent lockdown.

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f
fl 1 hour ago
‘Props are awesome…so why don’t they win prizes?’

“The reason most props don’t last the whole game is that they expend proportionally more effort than players outside the front row. Should they be penalised for that?”

No, they don’t last the whole game because they are less fit than players outside the front row. I’d be interested to know if you’d apply this logic to other positions; do PSDT and Itoje regularly last longer than other players in their positions because they put in less effort?

None of this is about “penalising” props, its about being realistic about their impact on a game.


“While scrums are a small part of the game in terms of time spent in them, they have disproportionate impact. Dominant scrums win games; feeble ones lose them.”

Strength at the breakdown wins games. Good kicking wins games. Good handling wins games. Strong defence wins games. Good lineouts win games. Ultimately, I think that of all these things, the scrum is probably the least important, because it demonstrably doesn’t correlate very well with winning games. I don’t think Rugbypass will allow me to link articles, but if you google “HG Rugby Crowning the Best Scrum in Club Rugby” you’ll get a pretty convincing analysis that ranks Toulouse and Bordeaux outside of the 10 best club sides in the scrum - and ranks Leinster outside of the top 30.


“Or there’s Joe Marler’s epic performance in the Bristol v Quins 2021 Premiership Semi-Final, in which he finally left the pitch 15 minutes into extra time having signed off with a try saving tackle.”

Yeah - that’s a good example actually, but it kind of disproves your point. Marler played 95 minutes, which is unheard of for a prop.


“Maybe we need a dedicated Hall of Fame with entry only for props, and voted for only by props.”

Well we have the World Rugby XV of the year. Its only been going for a few years, but in time it’ll be a pretty good record of who are perceived as best props - although the lack of interest most people have in scrums means that perception of who the best props are doesn’t always match reality (e.g. Tadgh Furlong was great in 2018 - but was he really the best tighthead in the world in 2021, 2022, & 2023?).

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