Meehan happy with Vesty
Bath head coach Steve Meehan has said that he is extremely happy with the impact that Sam Vesty has made since joining the club.
Vesty signed for Bath this summer after leaving Leicester. He arrived with Lewis Moody from the Premiership champions as Bath looks to add some title winning experience to the playing squad.
Vesty enjoyed a very good debut for Bath in the Premiership during a`32-16 match over Leeds. Vesty scored a total of 17 points in the match and now looks as though he will be the kicker for Bath this season.
Vesty has a number of skills and attributes that should ensure he maintains the early momentum he has built up. However, Bath cannot rely on a single player this season if the club wants to be successful.
Skills and attributes
Vesty's best position in any side is fly-half. He has the pace and the passing quality to play in this position. It allows him to be creative while other areas of the team will work on defence and stopping the opposition.
He has experience that he developed during his time at Leicester. He played 157 times for Leicester and scored 241 points. This means he will be able to help younger players at Bath who may just be breaking into the first team.
His hunger and passion is as great as it was since he started his career. Vesty has done a number of interviews in recent weeks where he's said that he believes Bath has a really good chance to win the league this season.
Meehan said: "Sam's really slotted in very well. He kicked some points at the weekend, he scored a try, defended well and he's enjoying our system of play."
A team effort
If Bath is going to be successful this season then it has to be a team effort that does not rely on the performance of one player every game. It's already clear that Vesty will be under huge pressure to kick a high count of points when Bath is not playing well.
This means the pressure that will be piled onto Vesty will increase over the next few weeks if other areas of the Bath team cannot become more fluent. Pressure can force errors from a player, which will mean that Vesty could miss a few kicks.
In order for Bath to take this pressure away from Vesty then other individuals have to step up and try to have a bigger impact on games. This will take the emphasis away from Vesty to score the majority of points for the team.
Meehan added: "As a result of his performance, training and attitude last week, Sam won the award for player of the week. I was always pretty confident that he'd slot in and he could deliver for us and he's done that so far."
Betting advice
Vesty is an important and experienced member of the Bath side and the club looks as though they will build a team around him as opposed to him fitting into a team.
Bath played very well in their first Premiership game of the season against Leeds. Have a punt on the South West club to lift the title if you like what you have seen so far during the first game and pre-season.
Vesty is a very good candidate to be top scorer at the club by the end of the rugby year. He can also top score in any Premiership game. However, bare in mind that the majority of good teams will find a way to stop him having an influence on a game.
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