'It's a scar': Sale Sharks players given break after painful drubbing

Sale Sharks boss Alex Sanderson admits that there will always be scars from last month’s 85-19 drubbing his side suffered at the hands of his former club, Saracens.

Sanderson says that he cannot wait to face the North London side next season as he looks to right the wrongs of their heaviest ever home defeat despite responding with a 52-33 win over Harlequins.

He said that the win over Quins went some way to restoring their pride, and a win over another struggling Gallagher PREM outfit, Gloucester, at Kingsholm tomorrow night will do some more healing, but the Saracens scars will always be there.

“No, I think we needed the break. The coaches were back in after the weekend, but we gave the lads four days and from being that low to in some way restoring our pride in some way, we’ll never totally get it back.

“It’s a scar, that Sarries game, but from being that low it takes your time just to level out. So I’m quite happy with the time that we’ve had.

“What will it take to heal that scar? Beating them by 80, doing an eye for an eye, all that kind of stuff.

“I look forward to playing them next year, but then you never fully get over stuff like that. Remember, the good and the bad, the peak end effect, it’s right down there, it’s right at the bottom.

“I leaned into some of my experiences. It’s not the first time I’ve been hammered or lost a big game. And it’s certainly not the first time I’ve had to address it this season.

“I’ve kind of reflected on the reasons for it and looked back through the experiences that I had and tried to understand what worked for this group and being as honest as I could be with them.

“I had faith that this was a group that would respond and reply with a similar degree of honesty and actions on the back of it. I gave them enough space to take ownership and control of the response. And this occasion it worked. I think I might have got it wrong in the past,” he said.