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The early season Bristol verdict on Sheedy vs MacGinty No10 battle
Pat Lam has described Bristol as blessed in having Wales’ Callum Sheedy going head to head this season with the USA’s AJ MacGinty for the No10 shirt at the Gallagher Premiership club. Having honed his craft by becoming the first-choice out-half under Lam in recent years and going on to star at Test level, most notably when putting England to the Guinness Six Nations sword in February 2021, Sheedy’s form wobbled last term.
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The soon-to-be 27-year-old was unable to lift the Bristol slump in results and this carried over into the Test arena where Wales axed him from their squad for the July tour of South Africa. A rebound was needed, especially with the summer arrival of 32-year-old MacGinty at the club after he agreed to join from Sale where he had been since 2016.
Bristol’s results have since been much improved, the Bears winning three of their first four matches in the 2022/23 Premiership. Sheedy was the starting No10 in the wins over Bath and Wasps, coming off the bench in the round three win over London Irish that left them top of the table and again in last weekend’s surprise loss at bottom club Newcastle.
MacGinty started those two most recent matches having initially been a sub in rounds one and two, and he now returns to the replacements bench for this Friday night’s Ashton Gate showdown with Exeter as director of rugby Lam has opted to restore Sheedy to the No10 jersey.
Prior to confirming that selection, Lam spoke about the battle between Sheedy and MacGinty for the starting slot at Bristol and how it was bringing out the best of the Test-level duo at a club crying out for consistency following last season’s painful lower-table crash.
“Really pleased,” purred Lam when asked for his thoughts on the Sheedy versus MacGinty battle at Bristol in recent weeks. “As a team, we are very blessed. Callum has come back fitter, stronger and better and played really well, and then AJ has come back and had two good games as well. The biggest thing for AJ is he is still learning our game and the systems. I remember when he came to Connacht (in 2015) it was the same, it took him a while to pick it up in that sense but he is doing really well because it is not that easy, particularly at ten.
“But again he has fitted in extremely well in the group and the thing I am really enjoying is the two of them have got a good relationship and they drive our game. They drive off-the-field thoughts and ideas, they do their kicking together and so it is great for us to have two good ones. Really pleased.”
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Asked how difficult last season was for Sheedy, Lam reckoned the response in recent weeks showed that his player has shrugged off that trauma. “Definitely. You look at the first two games he played at the start of the season against Bath and Wasps away where we hadn’t won there in 22 years and he was on fire. You could see the response. He played very well in the pre-season games as well.
“Of course, he was disappointed with missing out on the tour with Wales and he was also disappointed with the Bears season but that is like anybody. You have a choice to make, what are you going to do about it and he has come back so much better and we’re pleased.”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
26 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
26 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
26 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
26 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
26 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
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