England trio to make Sale Sharks debut in PREM Rugby Cup

Sale Sharks boss Alex Sanderson has done ‘a Rassie Erasmus’ and gone early in naming his team for Sunday’s PREM Rugby Cup opener at home to Bath.

While some clubs will treat the first batch of Cup games as a chance to give fringe players a run out, Sale have gone full bore in their selection, handing debuts to England internationals Courtney Lawes, Joe Marchant and Alex Lozowski.

Loose forward Lawes and centre/wing Marchant were big-name signings from France, while fly-half/centre Lozowski returns north having made a name for himself at Leeds before enjoying a stellar career at Wasps and then Saracens.

England stars Bevan Rodd, Tom Roebuck and Joe Carpenter and Scotland internationals Gus Warr and Arron Reed are also named in a strong starting XV.

Two other summer recruits, Christ Tshiunza and Xavier Roe, will start the first game of the new season on the bench.

Lock Ernst van Rhyn retains the captaincy from last season and is partnered in the engine room by the gargantuan Ben Bamber, as Sale field a pack big on physicality.

Meanwhile, Bath’s pre-season programme opened over the weekend with a 53-42 defeat away to Perpignan.

Bath did the Cup double over Sale last season en route to making the semi-finals, winning 20-0 at home before thrashing them 60-19 in Salford.

Sale Sharks starting XV: 15. Joe Carpenter, 14. Tom Roebuck, 13. Joe Marchant, 12. Rekeiti Ma’asi-White, 11. Arron Reed, 10. Alex Lozowski, 9. Gus Warr; 1. Bevan Rodd, 2. Nathan Jibulu, 3. Tye Raymont, 4. Ernst van Rhyn (c), 5. Ben Bamber, 6. Courtney Lawes, 7. Sam Dugdale, 8. Jacques Vermeulen.

16. Alfie Longstaff, 17. Ralph McEachran, 18. Patreece Bell, 19. Christ Tshiunza, 20. Tristan Woodman, 21. Xavier Roe, 22. Ollie Davies, 23. Marius Louw.