1
'I've made big f*** ups in life... things you kick yourself over'
Sale boss Alex Sanderson has admitted it has been difficult to see his team suffer from late missed kicks in recent Gallagher Premiership matches but rather than hang rookie out-half Tom Curtis out to dry, the Sharks staff have rallied around the 20-year-old in an attempt to bulletproof him for any future high-pressure end-game moments.
ADVERTISEMENT
Curtis was bumped up the squad pecking order in October due to injuries and has been providing bench cover to another rookie half-back, the 22-year-old Kieran Wilkinson, who started the season coming off the bench to kick the match-winning round one penalty in the win over Bath.
Wilkinson has gone on to wear the starting No10 shirt in the recent games versus Gloucester, Harlequins and Leicester, with Curtis providing support from the bench. The sub held his nerve in the middle match against the defending champions, putting Sale into a 76th minute lead with a penalty before Raffi Quirke’s win-sealing try.
However, his other two outings ended with missed kicks from the tee. Curtis was off target with a clock-in-the-red conversion that would have beaten Gloucester and he was also errant with last Saturday’s final kick of the match at Leicester, the missed conversion costing Sale a losing bonus point.
What has been the reaction at Sale to the points-costing inaccuracy? “I have made loads of mistakes, I have made some big f*** ups in my life and that is the same anywhere, things that you could have done differently, things that you kick yourself over,” said Sanderson to RugbyPass.
What did Sale make of the tackle school that Rohan Janse van Rensburg recently graduated from? #GallagherPrem #WORvSAL #Sharks #Springbokshttps://t.co/ASY0Fj960B
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 27, 2021
“But in the end, it is like anyone who makes a mistake, it’s not about telling them how to do it better because I couldn’t. It is about making them understand that you are there for them, that you support them, that you still back them, you still trust them and he [Curtis] is going to have his time again. The result of that Leicester game, the fact that we didn’t get a point wasn’t down to that last kick. It hinged on it but it wasn’t down to it and I said that in the circle on the field, I let him and everyone else know just that.
“He came back in on Sunday and kicked for about three hours,” added Sanderson about the reaction of Curtis to his second last-gasp missed Sale kick in three outings. “That is the kind of what you want. It is, ‘You are backing me, I am backing myself to be better’. That was his response. What a bloke to come in and then just crack on with it.
ADVERTISEMENT
“We are going to help him. We had a conversation, are we doing everything with these young lads that we can possibly do to put them in the best headspace? I have seen him kick those day in day out from further, from wider. He has got it in him. His dad was a footballer and he strikes the ball beautifully but something psychologically, as you would expect in the cauldron that it was, affected him.
“We have got a who works with Man United academy who has done some stuff with our penalty takers, so we are going to help him out and get some extra tuition on the back of what we are already giving him to see if we can fast-track the mental approach to it as well as the physical because he is doing all the work, but it’s the top two inches.”
Alex Sanderson has revealed to @heagneyl ??? the hilariously awkward country club moment that he first bumped into Steve Diamond after he succeeded him as the Sale director of rugby earlier this year#Sharks #GallagherPremhttps://t.co/YJyrl00Yht
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 19, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
Who's Jarrad Hohepa?
1 Go to commentsSo let me get this straight. Say you have the dominant scrum. You are 99% sure you can go for a scrum pushover try on the line to win the game. The opposition knows it too. They give away a silly tap kick instead. You are now not allowed to scrum. This is ridiculous! *%@ing the game up as usual! The fact that the attacking teams are not allowed to scrum from a held up over the line is just as ridiculous. Really world rugby? Careful people might start a rebel league called True Rugby or Real Rugby.
72 Go to comments12 subs during a game? How has that been allowed to happen NB? I hate when the game goes in this monopolistic direction closing up shop, it just becomes non sport. Btw have you seen anything of how Liam Coltman was tracking for Lyon? He has just signed to return to Otago though we have a couple of young hookers developing here. He was a popular gentle natured character down here and I’m glad to see him back but maybe he will be a mentor primarily?
4 Go to commentsGreat breakdown and the global politics always confuses me a little. The southern hemisphere seems to be left out a bit but I wouldn’t even know where to start with fixing it. Club challenge could be a step in the right direction
4 Go to commentsSince he coached Free state, from that time onwards, I maintained he was the coach for the Boks. A nice, no nonsense guy with an excellent brain, who gets results.
11 Go to commentswell - they only played against 14 men and had the TMO team on their side - and still should have lost… so actually that makes sense.
32 Go to commentsSouthern hemisphere Rugby is exactly that, boring. Northern Hemisphere Rugby is soooo much more entertaining and better with better players.
2 Go to commentsIf he was to be cited for a dangerous behavior, then it’s natural that he should be. Then NTamack too, yes? And I’ll add a good whataboutism - Yeandle eye-gouging on Richie Arnold: not cited. Eye-gouging. Not high tackle. Eye-gouging. It was on French TV, with French TV directors.
5 Go to commentsReally poorly written rambling piece ..
4 Go to commentsIt was so boring
2 Go to commentspersonally I’d go with : 1. France 2. NZ 3. England 4. Ireland 5. Scotland
32 Go to commentsAndy everything becomes easier with experience therefor counting etc straight after a match becomes easier when you have 100+ caps vs 17 which is the experience you speak from.
160 Go to commentsGetting rid of the Dupont Law is a good thing and ought to have been done months ago! Officially getting rid of the croc roll is a good thing. The law about no scrums from a short arm is well intended in terms of speeding the game up but it’s an overreaction to a clever yet calculated gamble that could have blow up in South Africa’s face if they conceded a penalty from the scrum that was set after Willemse took claimed the mark in the World Cup QF.
72 Go to commentsRassie The GOAT
11 Go to commentsOf their 5 big matches in RWC Scotland and NZ were the easiest. They took a 12-3 lead against NZ and after the red decided it was best to hold the lead and take chances that came. None came and it was tight but they dug a lot deeper in the other two knock out matches. They had trounced NZ in Twickenham in a fixture that NZ must now regret. Psychology was clearly with SA in the final as a result.
32 Go to commentsMy favourite line/exchanges from Chasing the Sun 2. News headline: “SA. The last hurdle in ABs World Cup glory”. Something like that. “You’re all just a hurdle. A hop, skip and a jump”. Coming from Rassie and Jacque. Basically - nobody thinks you’re going to win. You’re just a pushover team. Nobody respects you. When the camera shows the players faces, you can see the effect. You can see the rev meters (die moer metertjies) firing up. Mitchell said he felt it prior to the 19 final. He said to Eddie watching the teams warming up that it was going to be a tough day at the office. Wave a red flag in front of South African, and you can expect a reaction. This is not unique - many teams rev themselves. And Bok teams in particular. With horrific consequences (discipline, poor thinking under pressure) because that’s the drawback to using emotion right? But what this Bok team does better than many since 2007 is channel the emotion and stay on task. Despite the emotion. Why, because while Rassie might play mind games - he talks about creating a safe environment. Listen to his recent honorary doctorate acceptance speech. While he uses psychology he creates psychological safety. He’s a damn fine coach. Can’t wait for Pretoria. It’s going to be a hummer.
11 Go to commentsWhat Rassie does for SA is big. It has helped people to unite and see we can win with the right people in place.
11 Go to commentsTerrible conditions for young players to express themselves just enjoy it guys. As a saffa great to see Ausie youth looking good. Wow SA have some great talent also.
2 Go to commentsYes, another example of French tv directors ensuring that incidents like this are swiftly glossed over for the benefit of their teams…
5 Go to commentsThe prospect of the club match ups across hemispheres is surely appetising for everyone. The reality however, may prove to be slightly different. There are currently two significant driving forces that have delivered to same teams consistently to the latter champions cup stages for years now. The first of those is the yawning gap in finances, albeit delivered by different routes. In France it’s wealthy private owners operating with a higher salary cap by some distance compared to England. In Ireland it’s led by a combination of state tax relief support, private Leinster academy funding and IRFU control - the provincial budgets are not equal! This picture is not going to change anytime soon. The second factor is the EPCR competition rules. You don’t need a PhD. in advanced statistical analysis from oxbridge to see the massive advantage bestowed upon the home team through every ko round of the tournament. The SA teams will gain the opportunity for home ko ties in due course but that could actually polarise the issue even further, just look at their difficulties playing these ties in Europe and then reverse them for the opposition travelling to SA. Other than that, the picture here is unlikely to change either, with heavyweight vested interests controlling the agenda. So what does all this point to for the club world championship? Well the financial differential between the nh and sh teams is pretty clear. And the travel issues and sporting challenge for away teams are significantly exacerbated beyond those already seen in the EPCR tournaments. So while the prospect of those match ups may whet our rugby appetites, I’m very much still to be convinced the reality will live up to expectations…
4 Go to comments