'Beef': Alex Sanderson admits PREM foes 'rubbed' Sale's face in it

Alex Sanderson admits the 65-14 thumping Sale Sharks suffered against his former club Saracens in October still stings ahead of the return fixture in Greater Manchester this Sunday.

The Sharks have little left to play for this season but pride after being dumped out of the Champions Cup by Leinster in Dublin last weekend, though they could all but end Saracens’ faint hopes of a Gallagher PREM top-four finish.

Sanderson spent 17 years as a player and coach with the North London outfit, who celebrated that emphatic win – which saw Tom O’Flaherty sin-binned and Luke Cowan-Dickie sent off – with a social media video showing a fish being dipped into a deep-fat fryer.

“I manage to find beef with everyone. It was a big part of my life, 17 years, but it’s not something I’ve thought about this week. And the year in sport, it’s like a decade in life. Such is the roller coaster of testing yourself weekly.

“I know people talk about the game being professional and that you can’t afford to have emotional biases and all that, but I’m still hurting from the result down there, where we suffered a couple of yellow cards and went down to 13 men.

Fixture

Gallagher Premiership

Sale

07:00

19 Apr 26

Saracens

All Stats and Data

“We got stuffed and then got our faces rubbed in it from their side. So that still stings for me. It was right at the start of the season, but it’s still stinging.

“So there’s a little bit of dented pride to sort out, always. For them, social media bragging rights are important. And for us, it’s about finishing strong and as high up the table as we can,” he said.

The Sharks have already announced that Dan du Preez, Rob du Preez, Raffi Quirke, James Harper and Obinna Ene are leaving the club at the end of the season, and Sanderson is keen to send them out in style.

“We’ve got a taste for championship quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals. We want to get back there again next year, but we want to send the lads who are leaving out in the right style.

“I think the end of this campaign is important. It tests the mettle of your more deep-seated motivators – how much the lads mean to each other.

“This is going to be the end of an era for a lot of lads who’ve played for Sale. That’s the reality of it. I want to make it feel special because the lads who will leave do matter to me,” he added.