Sale announce 10 departures, confirm 33 players they will see the 2019/20 Premiership out with
Steve Diamond has confirmed the 33-strong Sale squad he intends to finish out the 2019/20 Gallagher Premiership season with, a roster that sees the departure of 10 players from the Manchester-based club. The Sharks were in second place in the English top-flight when the season ground to a halt in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Now back in training ahead of scheduled August 15 restart, they have since changed a number of their squad in the hope of a successful final push in a campaign that has nine regular-season games and a Premiership Cup final left to play.
Current England player Mark Wilson is the highest-profile departure, the back row returning to Newcastle following his loan spell at the AJ Bell club. Sale are bolstered, though, by the arrival of Sam Hill from Premiership title rivals Exeter and South African Cobus Weise (subject to a work visa, as reported some weeks ago by RugbyPass).
“The lads have really shown their togetherness in recent times and that has helped everyone at the club adapt and overcome the unique challenges we have faced during the pandemic,” said Diamond in a club statement that listed the 18 forwards and 15 backs who will be at his disposal for the restart.
“I’m proud of the squad we have built and we all share the same ambition to finish the season as strongly as possible. It has been fantastic to welcome Sam Hill to Carrington this week, along with the imminent arrival of Cobus Weise.
EXCLUSIVE: Diamond denies an approach to bring Tuilagi to Sale but has the financial power to make it happen
– reports @chrisjonespress ???https://t.co/n607Gblh7O
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) July 5, 2020
“I’m sure the squad we have put together will push us even closer to achieving our goals. We’re currently planning to run with a 33-player squad, complemented by an exceptionally talented group of senior academy players.
“The lads are chomping at the bit to get back to rugby and we’re all looking forward to resuming the season as soon as it is safe to do so.”
The Premiership’s professional game board allowed clubs to progress into stage two of the return to play protocols at the start of this week following the recent uncertain period surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic
SALE’S 2019/20 RESTART SQUAD
Forwards (18) – Ross Harrison, Valery Morozov, Coenie Oosthuizen, Jake Cooper-Woolley, Will-Griff John, Akker Van Der Merwe, Curtis Langdon, Cameron Nield, Lood de Jager, Josh Beaumont, James Phillips, Matt Postlethwaite, Cobus Wiese (subject to work visa), Ben Curry, Tom Curry, Jono Ross, Jean-Luc du Preez, Daniel du Preez.
Backs (15) – Faf de Klerk, Will Cliff, Gus Warr, Kieran Wilkinson, Rob du Preez, AJ MacGinty, Sam James, Luke James, Sam Hill, Rohan Janse van Rensburg, Denny Solomona, Marland Yarde, Byron McGuigan, Arron Reed, Simon Hammersley.
Leaving Players (10) – Nic Dolly, Rob Webber, Joe Jones, Bryn Evans, Rouban Birch, Ciaran Booth, Mark Wilson, Teddy Leatherbarrow, Sam Dugdale, Matt Sturgess.
The life of @MarkyJ13 fell apart when he learned of the horrific circumstances of his birth.
The ex-England U20s centre talks to @heagneyl about fighting back from drink, drugs, ballooning up to 112kg and finding himself on the brink of homelessnesshttps://t.co/cdx4CZS7rb
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) June 21, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments