Bears sign Sale fly-half MacGinty on 3-year deal
PAT Lam has reunited with his former Connacht fly-half AJ MacGinty, signing the USA international on a three-year deal.
MacGinty, 31, will join the Bears from Sale Sharks ahead of the 2022/23 campaign.
Regarded as one of the best flyhalves in the Gallagher Premiership, the 31-year-old links up with Pat Lam once again, having helped Connacht to a maiden PRO12 title during the 2015/16 season.
MacGinty has made 93 appearances for Sale Sharks, racking up 801 points since arriving at the AJ Bell Stadium in 2016.
Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam said: “With our ambition of being one of the top clubs in Europe, I’ve always said depth and quality in each position is vital. Our expectation is that Callum (Sheedy) will continue to develop into an established international and be away with Wales for periods of each season, so it’s important to have worldclass experience in the fly-half position.
“While we have some very good youngsters coming through, as everyone knows, this is a critical position for the team, so we are pleased to bring in somebody of AJ’s experience and calibre.
Below Wales international Sheedy, who has been named on the bench to face Fiji on Sunday in the autumn internationals series, Bristol have Ioan Lloyd, Tiff Eden and Tom Wilstead as fly-half options with teenager Jac Lloyd also in the academy.
Lam continued: “It’s no secret having worked closely with AJ before, that I’m a huge admirer of the qualities that he brings to a team, on and off the field.
“I’ve kept an eye on his progress since helping him move to Sale from Connacht in 2016 and there’s always been an ambition to work with him again if the opportunity arose. His game management, defensive qualities, kicking ability and all-round understanding of the way I like our teams to play is excellent.”
Named captain of USA Rugby in June 2021, MacGinty featured for the American squad in the 2015 Rugby World Cup, scoring 25 points in the competition.
Meanwhile, Lam is reportedly investigating whether Saracens and England star Mako Vunipola would be open to a return to the city he started his professional career in.
Loosehead prop Vunipola, 30, is undoubtedly one of the finest players in his position in the world and there is a sense among fans he is one who got away having come through the youth set-up at Bristol Rugby a decade ago having been at Millfield School.
After breaking into the senior side and making more than 30 appearances for Bristol he was signed by Saracens in 2011 and has since gone on to win four Premiership titles with the North London club in 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019 and also helped them win the European Champions Cup in 2016, 2017 and 2019.
Vunipola made his England debut in 2012 and has since gone on to earn 67 caps for England, who he qualifies for through residency having been born in New Zealand to Tongan parents, and a further nine caps for the British and Irish Lions over three tours including this summer in South Africa.
The Rugby Paper reports Mako Vunipola is out of contract at the end of the season and his CV is currently circulating in France with Lam also interested in strengthening his options at loosehead.
It would not be the first time Lam has looked to bring a former Bristol star back to the club having returned both Dave Attwood and Mitch Eadie to the club they started at and in 2019 he made an unsuccessful offer to Leicester Tigers captain and England star Ellis Genge to come back to South West.
■ England yesterday said they had encountered no further coronavirus setbacks in the wake of Joe Marler’s positive test that has ruled him out of Saturday’s showdown with Australia.
The Rugby Football Union reported that all playing and backroom staff who underwent an additional round of PCR testing in the wake of Marler’s confirmed case had produced negative results.
Eddie Jones will breathe a sigh of relief at news that means disruption for the the Wallabies collision is limited to finding a replacement for Marler on the bench. The Harlequins prop played 14 minutes of the 69-3 victory over Tonga, providing loosehead cover for first choice in the position Ellis Genge.
The vacancy created by Marler’s absence has seen Bevan Rodd called up, with the 21-year-old Sale prop set to make his debut against Australia, preventing him from playing for the nation of his birth Scotland.
Jones’ hand has been forced by the presence of only two specialist looseheads in the squad, Genge and Marler. Rodd’s call-up shows how far Mako Vunipola has slipped down the pecking order, with the Lions and Saracens front row overlooked for the role of emergency cover.
However, England still face a second weekend of disruption because of Covid.
Captain Owen Farrell missed the Tonga clash after returning a positive test, only for reanalysis of the sample to reveal it was a false-positive. In a bid to limit any more setbacks, all 34 players in Jones’ squad are remaining in camp for the whole week.
EMMA Raducanu hopes her new coach Torben Beltz can help her build on a breakthrough season, which ended with defeat by qualifier Wang Xinyu in Austria.
The US Open champion was the top seed at a WTA Tour event for the first time at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz having won her first matches on the main circuit only two weeks ago but she could not add to that here, losing 6-1 6-7 (0) 7-5 to 106th-rated Wang.
Raducanu had hoped to keep the identity of her new coach secret for a little while longer but it emerged on Tuesday that she will be guided through preseason and into 2022 by 44-yearold Beltz, pictured inset, who is best known as the mentor of three-time grand slam champion Angelique Kerber.
On Monday, Kerber announced she and Beltz had split for a third time.
Raducanu said: “It’s obviously a great privilege to be working with such an experienced coach. I’m definitely very excited to work with him throughout the pre-season and into next year. I’m feeling excited about all the work that is to come.
“I think he brings a lot of experience. Obviously he’s worked with Kerber, who’s such a great player and has done extremely well, won three slams. I think that experience definitely helps with someone as inexperienced as me.
“He can help guide me through, which I feel really confident about, and also he’s a really positive, cheerful guy who brings great energy.”