Bristol's MacGinty signing opens door for Ford to Sale - report
Out-of-favour England out-half George Ford has been linked to a move from league leaders Leicester to Sale for next season after it was confirmed this week that AJ MacGinty, the Sharks' USA skipper, has signed for Bristol Bears. MacGinty had long been coveted by Pat Lam as they previously worked together in Ireland when Connacht won the 2015/16 PRO12 title.
With the 31-year-old MacGinty agreeing to a deal that will take him from Manchester, where he has been since 2016, it has opened the door for a high profile out-half to be recruited and The Telegraph have reported that Ford, the 2019 World Cup final No10 for England, is now tipped to make the switch to the AJ Bell from Leicester.
The 28-year-old has been in immense form this season at Tigers, responding magnificently to his painful England omission. For instance, while Eddie Jones was in emergency mode last week getting George Furbank ready to start against Tonga as the rookie England No10 following Owen Farrell's isolation, Ford was putting Bath to the sword as Leicester completed their eight-match winning run to the start of the Premiership season.
Ford reportedly is a frequent visitor to his home town of Saddleworth where he part-owns a coffee shop with his brother Joe. There is also the precedent that the out-half doesn't sign an extension at a club that has released his father. Mike Ford led Bath to the 2015 Premiership final but he soon lost his head coach job there and it was followed by George signing for Tigers in 2017.
Mike has since left his defence coach position at Leicester after his contract wasn't renewed there last summer under Steve Borthwick and months later there is now speculation that George will also likely leave at the end of this season when his own contract is up.
Currently in their first full season under Alex Sanderson, Sale are placed eighth after three wins in eight matches so far. They have had their injury issues at out-half and have left points behind with missed late kicks from rookies 10s in some of their games. Ford last played for England in their March 2021 Six Nations loss to Ireland and he has since been eclipsed in the Test squad pecking order by the emergence of Harlequins' Marcus Smith and the renewed belief that Jones can make a viable Test out-half out of Northampton full-back Furbank.
The Telegraph have also reported that Sale will have further wriggle room to manoeuvre under the reduced salary cap with the likely departure of Springboks lock Lood de Jager back to South Africa when his contract runs out at the end of this season.
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Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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