Sanderson takes bait and claps back in war of words with Sharks owner

Alex Sanderson admits that his pre-match team talk is sorted as he aims to show Marco Masotti who the “angriest and most aggressive shark” is in the showdown of the Sharks in Manchester on Saturday.

New York lawyer Masotti, who owns the Durban-based URC outfit, has cheekily suggested on social media ahead of the Champions Cup clash that the Gallagher PREM side rebrand as “Sale Tuna.”

He wants them to leave his side as the world’s sole “Sharks” rugby club, a move that hasn’t gone down well at Sale’s Carrington training base this week.

The Wall Street powerbroker plans to attend the game, and his post will certainly come back to haunt him if Sanderson has anything to do with it after his post on X caused a war of words to break out.

“We’ll lean into that. Do they respect us as an organisation? Questionable, certainly not from the top. I will have that in the back pocket. Those lads who are on social media might want bragging rights.

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“You’ve got to find something every week that pushes the buttons. There’s enough there for us this week. Michelle [Orange, Sale’s co-owner] said, tongue-in-cheek, maybe we should rebrand as Manchester Megalodons.

“We’ve been theming it up like that. Who is going to be the bigger, better, more aggressive Shark? Funnily enough, my mum’s coming to watch on Saturday, and she’s not well.

“Three years ago, she gave me a fossilised megalodon tooth, so I could remind myself, when she’s not around to nag me, of the kind of shark I want to be.

“Be the biggest shark, be the angriest shark, be the most aggressive shark, day to day. I’m probably going to talk about that to the lads.

“I want to show her that I can be this person, this coach that she wants me to be. There’s always personal reasons for you to be motivated,” said Sanderson.

Sanderson says that the South Africans will be walking into conditions that few of them will have experienced before, and that they need to use the conditions to their advantage.

“Minus three conditions at the CorpAcq Stadium, they’re flying in from 25 degrees in Durban. It is going to have to be a quick acclimatisation for them.

“The CorpAcq at night in midwinter helps us against anyone. It’s not a nice place to come, and we want to keep it that way,” he added.