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Alex Sanderson accepts bleak reality of Sale's season but adds warning
By Neil Fissler
Alex Sanderson is determined that his Sale Sharks side will have a massive say on who finishes in the Gallagher PREM play-off places, even though he knows it’s almost mathematically impossible to be them.
The Sharks are seventh in a lower mid-table no man’s land with 20 points, 15 points behind fifth-place Exeter Chiefs, whom they travel to play this weekend, with Leicester Tigers one point further ahead.
Sanderson knows it will almost take an act of God for them to catch the teams above them, but they play them all except for Northampton Saints between now and the end of the season, which will give them a major say in the play-off picture.
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“I’ve been told by a mathematician that it’s highly implausible. We’ve got to win every game with bonus points, and everyone else has to lose.
“I think it’s beyond the realms of reality, and I’m more of a pragmatist than I’m a dreamer, unfortunately. We ought to be dangerous for every opposing team. We’re not going to throw in the towel.
“We’re going to go through the end of this season, swinging, and we want to be the team that everyone else doesn’t want to play. We’re going to have an effect on who finishes top four, and finish as high up the table as we can.
“That will be part of our motivation to put a few noses out of joint and also to continue in the Champions Cup, which is, you know, just around the corner, two weeks away. So, there are some big games there,” Sanderson told RugbyPass.
Sanderson will resist the temptation to put all his eggs in one basket and focus solely on the Champions Cup round of 16 clash with Harlequins, which is realistically their last chance for success this season.
“It’s a good question. The answer is no. It’s in the background. Bath to Quins is a short turnaround for us, six days. So, there are elements of how we prep which we won’t explicitly talk through with the lads.
“But we’ll be in preparation for Quins because the focus and the mentality have to be on the team you play at the weekend, and that’s only because of how tightly contested the PREM is, we know that.
“If you’re just off it, as we saw in the Six Nations, by a little bit, then you’re off it by a long way. So, it’s important we build momentum going into Quins. It’s important that we have good performances and get cohesion back,” he added.
