the times | Monday January 3 2022 2GM 53
Sport
Fly half reshuffle
brings MacGinty
out of the shade
T
here are two versions of Sale
Sharks. There is the one in
which AJ MacGinty guides
them shrewdly around the
park from fly half — and
then there is the other Sale, struggling
for any sort of natural balance
between the bludgeoning Springbok
influence and even a hint of subtlety.
The United States captain has been
hampered by injury and has started
only four Gallagher Premiership
games this season. Consequently
there has been a rupture between
forwards and backs, where recently
there was rhythm. The Irish-born and
Blackrock College-educated fly half is
as good a conductor of the game as
there is in the Premiership.
But he plays for the second-rate
Eagles, rather than England or South
Africa. When George Ford
announced that he would leave
Leicester Tigers at the end of the
season to sign for Sale, and when
Handré Pollard was named as the
World Cup-winning replacement for
the out-of-favour England No 10, the
big point of discussion was whether
the South African would take
Leicester to another level.
Ford’s signing was accepted as
something that would strengthen
Sale. England trumps the Eagles. Few
thought that it might be Bristol Bears,
the club who triggered the transfers
with their mid-season move for
MacGinty, who would most benefit.
Pat Lam said all the right things
when discussing MacGinty’s
impending arrival. “Callum [Sheedy]
will continue to develop into an
established international and be
away” with Wales, the Bristol director
of rugby said.
The Irish-born No 10 is no probable
back-up, however. Lam has history
with the man he brought to Ireland
from the US after the 2015 World
Cup. MacGinty was a crucial
component in Connacht’s Pro14 surge
to an unexpected final victory against
Leinster. Here was a player full of
poise. An adroit
tactician, a man
comfortable with
carrying the ball in
two hands, a change
of pace. He had all
the technical
requirements,
plus a cool,
commanding
presence.
Only his goal-
kicking let him
down that day in
Edinburgh. Now it is right
up there with the best in
England. Against Wasps
he darted down blind
sides to create one try and
lured the Wasps midfield out
of shape to send his midfield
bolting through gaps of hiscreation. His touch is every bit as
accomplished as Ford’s.
Lam had to let him leave Connacht
because of an overseas player ruling
but has, since, long “coveted” him — a
strong word from a coach who has
been around the rugby world.
When injury ended the fly half’s
hopes of representing the Eagles in
June, including in a Twickenham Test
match, the US head coach, Gary Gold,
said he was “devastated”. MacGinty,
31, is the fulcrum of the US team.
The same with Sale. Too frequently
he has been overlooked because of
the higher-profile blond bomber at
scrum half, Faf de Klerk. When the
Springbok is in the ascendancy, the
power and the pressure comes from
the air and the fringes.
Springboks trump Eagles, just
as England do. And so we simply nod
knowingly at the consistent quality of
this fly half who has done so much to
convert Sale from Steve Diamond’s
brutal team to Alex Sanderson’s
slightly more nuanced one.
There was nobody in better form in
the late rush for play-off places than
MacGinty. His injury before the semi-
final away to Exeter Chiefs in June
was the most underestimated injury
blow in Premiership history. Sale had
no chance without him; a thinker’s
chance with him.
On Saturday, against Exeter, his
future club continued to flatter. Semi
Radradra cannot win games on his
own. He needs someone to put him
into positions to make his beautiful
running game match-winning, not
only occasionally thrilling.
MacGinty has the intelligence, as
well as Lam’s confidence, in running a
game plan that has not changed
much since the men were together
in Galway. With MacGinty at No 10,
Bristol might have created enough
chances to overturn the statistically
overwhelming Exeter supremacy.
As for Ford, he has been nigh
faultless for Leicester in the past two
years. He is a magnificent operator.
Yet it is far from certain that his boots
will fill those of MacGinty.
Sale, with their sizeable set of
forwards, are ripe for a regressive
kicking game. Fabulous footballer
that Ford is — lovely distributor in his
own right — there is no guarantee
that he will add anything to make
Sale superior to the present team.
It is worth remembering the timing
of the three fly half transfers. Bristol
got their man first. Ford had been in
talks with Sanderson, but it was the
loss of the Eagle that created the
momentum for Ford’s move. And not
until the Ford deal did Pollard fully
see the Leicester light.
All that fuss about the local boy,
Ellis Genge, leaving Leicester for
Bristol at the end of the season —
but it wouldn’t surprise me if the
Eagle proves the main man to
relaunch a Bristol team who remain
a shadow of the side who excited so
many last season.
We know how good Ford and
Pollard can be. The English
club game is a substantial
enough stage for us
to treasure an
underestimated
No 10, playing
for Sale
or Bristol.Stuart Barnes
Hall wins second silver
on great weekend for GB
Bobsleigh Great Britain’s Brad Hall
won his second bobsleigh World Cup
silver in as many days after his
compatriot Mica McNeill had piloted
the women’s sled to the same metal.
Hall’s medal, alongside brakeman
Nick Gleeson’s, capped a superb
weekend in Latvia after he and Greg
Cackett had taken silver on Saturday,
followed by McNeill and Adelle Nicoll
— who is also a shot putter —
winning their first World Cup medals.
Germany won the men’s race while
the US women took gold.
“It’s an absolutely brilliant way to
the start the new year,” McNeill,
whose previous World Cup best was
fourth place, said. “We’re still on the
journey to qualifying for the Olympic
Games but we’re feeling optimistic.”her first appearance at
a grand-slam event
since she won the US
Open last September.
She intends to play in
the Sydney Classic,
which begins on
Sunday.
Still, this is not an
ideal start to her first
full season on the
WTA Tour. Even
without the Covid-
related difficulties,
Navratilova believes
there are some tricky
hurdles facing the
relatively
inexperienced
teenager, who played
her first match at this
level almost seven
months ago.
“It’s going to be hard
for her this year,” the
18-times grand-slam
champion told WTA
Insider. “Players have
seen her, they know
what to do against her.
But most of all, she
just needs matches.
She’s the biggest wild
card for me. Because
clearly she has the
ability to play greattennis. Can she
replicate it
consistently enough?
Seven WTA-level
tournaments in her
life? That’s half a
season.
“It’s going to be so
much to handle
physically, playing
more matches, but
everybody’s going to
be gunning for her —
that’s the thing that’s
going to look good on
their résumé. And the
pressure’s going to be
on her emotionally, aswell. Being a Brit,
she’s under a huge
microscope; it’s hard
to get away from it.”
Raducanu is now
being guided by the
experienced German
coach Torben Beltz,
though Navratilova
still struggles to
understand why she
dispensed with
Andrew Richardson
immediately after her
New York fairytale.
“To me, that she let
go of the coach that
got her to the US
Open was
unfathomable,”
Navratilova said. “I
really don’t get that.”
Pam Shriver, a five-
times Wimbledon
doubles champion,
shares the same
opinion as her former
partner Navratilova,
and foresees a drop for
Raducanu from her
present world ranking
of No 19.
“It was such a
sudden, unnatural step
from qualifying to
winning a major —
[it’s] never been done
before — followed up
by all these new
business partnerships,
recognition and
coaching changes,”
Shriver said.
“The only thing that
has remained the
same is her name, the
sport she plays and her
agent. I feel like
everything else around
her has changed, and
when you’re a
teenager you’re
already going through
a lot of changes. I’d be
surprised if she’s still
in the top 20 at the
end of the year.”purpose-built facility in Martigues,
close to Marseilles, cannot wait to get
back to competitive action, having
finished 2021 in joint-eighth place in
the men’s world series rankings.
“All of my training is in the pool,
which a lot of people might struggle
to get their head round,” he says.
“Obviously I have access to the sea,
but in the winter it’s a bit too cold and
it’s also hard to gauge timings, heart
rates, all of that stuff. The coach can’t
really have contact with you either. In
the pool it’s much easier.
“There are competitions along the
way, but Paris is now the one, just like
Tokyo was before. Now that’s been
and gone I want to redeem myself in
Paris. Hopefully it won’t be a Covid
Olympics either.
“After everything that happened in
Tokyo, I am now remotivated and
ready to go again.”“But it was cool to hold the Olympic
medal. I haven’t been able to resist the
temptation to put it round my neck.
Lots of people have said to me you
can only put it round your neck if
you’ve earnt it, otherwise it’s bad luck.
I don’t know, maybe it’s a bad omen
for Paris now I’ve done that!”
Pardoe is desperate for
“redemption” in the French capital in
the summer of 2024, and the journey
kicks off in earnest when the new
season of the Fina Marathon Swim
World Series begins in February or
March. The first event on the
schedule, details of which are still to
be confirmed, will likely serve as the
British team qualifier for the World
Championships in May. Those take
place back in Japan, some 600 miles
from Tokyo in the city of Fukuoka.
Pardoe, who, along with the rest of
the Lucas-led team, has moved to a
GRAHAM DENHOLM/GETTY IMAGESMacGinty, the US captain,
is key for his national sideRaducanu
practises at
the Rod
Laver
Arena in
Melbourne.
Inset, with
her new
coach Beltz