The message coming out of the Bristol Bears camp from coach, to captain, to man of the match is united - the 26-18 win over South Africa A on Thursday night has to be a catalyst for improvement heading back into the Premiership.
Bristol sit 10th in the league standings following five straight defeats, and yet they bettered a second string international side in front of a sold-out Ashton Gate in midweek to bring back a sense of feel-good.
Gabriel Ibitoye and Yann Thomas scored Bristol’s tries while Welsh international Sheedy landed six out of six kicks for 16 point in the victory over a side with 12 full Springbok internationals in their match-day 23. Ntuthuko Mchunu and Sikhumbuzo Notshe scored the visitors’ tries with Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu kicking two penalties and Johan Goosen adding a conversion.
In midweek, Bears director of rugby Pat Lam said preparing to meet the physical challenge the tourists posed was perfect preparation for his side’s next two Premiership encounters, away at the brutal Sale Sharks next weekend and then at home to reigning English champions Leicester Tigers the following week.
Speaking after the match, the outstanding Sheedy: “We haven’t been happy with our results in the last four or five weeks so hopefully this win will give us some momentum ahead of Saturday’s Premiership Cup game with Gloucester and our next Premiership fixture at Sale. It was a really special night, playing against a national side on your home ground before a huge crowd, compared with playing for Wales and will live with me for a long time.
“We knew we had to force errors from them and test their skills under pressure and we succeeded in forcing them to play deep.
“It was a massive defensive effort from us, especially just before half-time, when the crowd lifted us to win a turnover, when we were under huge pressure and ultimately it proved crucial.
“We know we have a very dangerous back three and fortunately we were able to score tries at the right time.”
Man of the match Joe Batley, discussing the effort and collective will displayed to hold out in defence against South Africa, echoed Sheedy's thoughts, he said: "There is a lot of love in this group and hopefully we can use this to springboard forward in the league now.
"We wanted to show the fans and one another how much it means to play for each other, for the Bears, and I feel like today we put a marker down. We have not got to use this as our base from where we are going to go now and keep going up."
Lam added: “The year is one where there are lots of things we’ve been working on and trying to get better at. I know people will judge us on the results but there are things that happen behind the scenes that we’ve got to keep doing and I’m really pleased with our performance. For people who were here to watch us against Cardiff [winning 32-12 in the friendly last Friday) we were doing very similar things.”
Those things are a better mastery of the basics, more control, playing in the right areas of the field and an improved kick chase game, with plenty of room for improvement, particularly at the currently unreliable lineout.
Lam hinted in midweek that a raft of world-class reinforcements are on the verge of a return to action following spells out with injuries and with the Premiership a priority, the likes of Semi Radradra, Charles Piutau and Steven Luatua could well make an appearance at the AJ Bell Stadium .
Radradra has not played this season following knee surgery but Lam confirmed he is very close to a return. He told Bristol Live: “Anyone who is sort of 50/50 the priority is to make sure that when they come back they don’t get injured again so we will make sure they are ready. If they are at risk we won’t take that risk against South Africa.
“Steven Luatua is not far away, they are all on track. Charles Piutau not only busted his nose, he had staples all across the front because it had opened up. It was a pretty nasty gash. He would have been playing for Tonga now so it is unfortunate he missed that opportunity but he has to not only deal with his broken nose but let that cut heal.”
However former All Black Piutau looked relatively well mended when spotted walking the corridors of Ashton Gate on Thursday and considering his heavy pay packet is likely to be back in action sooner rather than later.
A week later England props Ellis Genge and Kyle Sinckler, who start against the All Blacks on Saturday evening at Twickenham, return to club action with the pair likely to be thrown straight in before a rest during the Bears' European Challenge Cup pool stage games.
