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Bristol Post

Sport

John Evely

Pat Lam discusses Welsh stars Bristol Bears' future amidst summer tour omission

Pat Lam Bears Bristol (Organization) Bristol Bears Callum Sheedy Ospreys Wayne Pivac Ioan Lloyd Wales (Organization) Scarlets

Bristol Bears fly-half Callum Sheedy has not been selected for Wales’ summer tour to South Africa.

Sheedy, 26, has 16 caps for Wales and featured three times off the bench during the 2022 Guinness Six Nations however men’s head coach Wayne Pivac has opted to leave him out of the summer series.

Instead, Pivac has opted to take Northampton Saints’ Dan Biggar, who has also been named captain once again, along with Osprey’s Gareth Anscombe and Scarlets’ Rhys Patchell as his stand-off options as part of a 33-player squad for the three-Test Series in South Africa this July.

While the exclusion will no doubt come as a disappointment for Sheedy, his loss of a grip on a place in the Welsh national side could provide a boost to Bears director of rugby Pat Lam when it comes to trying to keep the Welshman at the club beyond his current contract.

Under the WRU selection criteria rules Sheedy, who will be competing for the starting 10 jersey at the Bears with USA international AJ MacGinty next season, will be ineligible for Wales selection if he re-signs with Bristol beyond his current contract which has at least another season to run.

Bristol's talented utility back Ioan Lloyd has also been overlooked once again having earned two caps off the bench in the Autumn of 2020 only to be cast aside, although at still just 21-year-old it is far too soon to be writing off his international career.

Asked in midweek whether he has concerns about being able to keep Sheedy and Lloyd at the club moving forwards, Lam said: “At the moment it is not a problem. They are Bears players and that is the most important thing at the moment.

“Ioan is here for at least two more years and at the moment they are not in the Welsh squad so it is a non-issue.

“They enjoy it here and they want to stay and we will just crack on until it is an issue. Everything can change, you never know what is around the corner.”

As for those who are in the Welsh squad this summer, George North and Dan Lydiate return for international duty after extended periods out with injury. Ospreys’ teammate Sam Parry, who spent a brief spell on loan at Bristol, will join them in camp with Wales.

There are two uncapped players: Cardiff Rugby’s James Ratti is called up after featuring in the Six Nations squad while Leicester Tigers’ Tommy Reffell is selected in a Wales senior men’s squad for the first time.

Pivac said: “We’ve had some players come back from injury like George North so that’s exciting for the squad. Some players have been ruled out through injury, so there’s naturally going to be change there. Then we’ve looked at players’ form, who we are playing, where we’re playing – we have two games at altitude – and what our gameplan will be when considering selection.

“I spoke to Tommy Reffell before we announced the squad for the Six Nations. We looked hard at Tommy and decided to leave him out then. He’s played very well since, he’s been very consistent – one of the most consistent players in the English Premiership so we feel that he deserves an opportunity and he will be well tested on this tour.

“This three Test Series is going to be a challenge. It always has been, history shows that and certainly that’s what we’re looking to achieve – to get a victory there if not two and win a series. The first two Tests at altitude are going to be a challenge, so first and foremost we’ve got to do a lot of preparation here in Wales before we go and make sure we are in the best shape possible to perform well.

On the captaincy Pivac added: “Dan Bigger is named captain. We’ve obviously got great leadership in the group with Alun Wyn and Dan. Dan did well in the Six Nations and Al has come back from a pretty big lay off. He’s had a little bit of rugby and we want him to hit his straps as a second row and be the best player he can be and focus on playing. He’ll lead naturally anyway but certainly he’s looking forward to that challenge.”

The first Test against the Springboks will be held at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday 2 July. From there Pivac’s squad will head to the Toyota Stadium in Bloemfontein (9 July) for the second Test, before completing the series at DHL Stadium in Cape Town on Saturday 16 July.

Wales and South Africa have faced each other 37 times to date with the first encounter taking place in Swansea in 1906. The two sides’ last fixture was during the 2021 Autumn Nations Series where Wales were narrowly defeated 23-18 at Principality Stadium.

Full squad below...

WALES SQUAD FOR SOUTH AFRICA TEST SERIES

Forwards (19)

Rhys Carre (Cardiff Rugby – 16 caps)

Wyn Jones (Scarlets – 43 caps)

Gareth Thomas (Ospreys – 10 caps)

Ryan Elias (Scarlets – 27 caps)

Dewi Lake (Ospreys – 5 caps)

Sam Parry (Ospreys – 5 caps)

Leon Brown (Dragons – 22 caps)

Tomas Francis (Ospreys – 64 caps)

Dillon Lewis (Cardiff Rugby – 38 caps)