Sale explain the 'great bit' about this week's Steve Borthwick visit
Gallagher Premiership leaders Sale have expressed satisfaction with last Tuesday’s visit by England boss Steve Borthwick and a couple of his national team assistants.
The English head coach met an eight-strong Sharks contingent consisting of Jonny Hill, Manu Tuilagi, Ben Curry, Tom Curry, Bevan Rodd, George Ford, Joe Carpenter and Tom Roebuck at a Manchester hotel while Richard Wigglesworth and Aled Walters went to the training ground ahead of this Sunday’s Investec Champions Cup tie against Stade Francais.
“Steve was back up north,” reported Alex Sanderson, the Sale director of rugby. “I didn’t see Steve. He was holed up at the hotel waiting for the lads to come to him, but I spoke to Richard Wigglesworth and Aled Walters who came into training camp. They were in good form, they seem like a tight bunch.”
Rather than host mid-winter England squad mini-camps, Borthwick has instead decided to visit all 10 Premiership clubs in person and meet not only with players who would have been part of the bronze medal France 2023 campaign but also uncapped potential such as Sale youngsters Carpenter and Roebuck.
Asked about the feedback from the players who met Borthwick last Tuesday, Sanderson said: “Only positive. What Steve was speaking to them about we already had a meeting about three or four weeks ago.
“Two areas really of focus, mainly around their X-factors and current strengths. Steve is more wanting to lean into that than focus on the weaknesses, but that is coaching one-on-one nowadays, isn’t it?
“So when they went in there none of it was a surprise for them. All of them could reflect and give some feedback to Steve on how they thought they were getting on with those two focus areas which were aligned with our own.
“That was the great bit about Steve and the initiative this year, that in the past they have just been given them, ‘Here are your focus points’. I’d receive them through email and then I have had to have a discussion whether or not they are aligned with our own coaching principles and focus points.
“This time round, he sat down and we discussed them. Fortunately, we play a pretty similar game plan to what I am sure England would want to adopt, so a lot of the values and the qualities that we are working with the lads on were aligned.
“So from what I hear, only positive. We are just trying to reframe it now, put it to bed so they can focus on the weekend.”
Fit-again Tuilagi will make his first appearance of this season for Sale following his recuperation from a hand fracture sustained at the Rugby World Cup.
Sale (vs Stade, Sunday – 1pm): 15. Joe Carpenter; 14. Tom Roebuck, 13. Sam James, 12. Manu Tuilagi, 11. Tom O’Flaherty; 10. George Ford, 9. Gus Warr; 1. Si McIntyre, 2. Tommy Taylor, 3. Nick Schonert, 4. Ben Bamber, 5. Jonny Hill, 6. Sam Dugdale, 7. Ben Curry (capt), 8. Dan du Preez.? Reps: 16. Agustin Creevy, 17. Ross Harrison, 18. Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 19. Cobus Wiese, 20. Josh Beaumont, 21. Raffi Quirke, 22. Tom Curtis, 23. Connor Doherty.
"We don't want to be the whipping boys of this group… that's proper motivation."
– Sale boss Alex Sanderson rates his team's chances in the #InvestecChampionsCup after last weekend's #GallagherPremiership battering at Harlequins. #SALvSFP pic.twitter.com/nhV0dZG5ac
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 7, 2023
Comments on RugbyPass
Don’t worry Sonny bill Williams leave that awkward situation about the curfew in the pass whoever it was it doesn’t matter its no big deal we back our All Blacks through the storm and the thunder until we see the Sun light again.
41 Go to commentsWho listens to this retard? He was a massive liability as a player but obviously a media sensation
41 Go to commentsI’m not surprised by such ‘virtue signalling’ by Sonny Boy. Butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. He’s such a pious Islamic muppet, imo.
41 Go to commentsI’ve actually never heard of the guy (then I don’t watch League as it is boring). But if he is good enough.. then good luck to him. If not, well, he can always return to league.
2 Go to commentsIt is pretty clear that by almost any measure that NZ are a more successful rugby nation than South Africa. Quite aside from the distasteful events during the last RWC final. NZ lead SA in all significant measurements.
39 Go to commentsDickson went to his pocket for a card, saw who it was, changed his mind and spoke at length to TMO. One angle clearly shows Care diving over a Saints player to kill the ball. 1st yellow, reason given for not Red was player was falling backwards. He was only falling backwards after contact with Lawes. Graham try should have stood. Mitchell did not have both hands on the ball, ball went forward from a Saints boot dragging over it. 2 intentional knock-on's. One of which had an overlap on the outside. If Quins are happy to win by intentional foul play, then it does not say much for them. Would appear to be a bad day for Karl Dickson, also for the RFU in appointing a Ref who spent 8 years as a player at one of the clubs.
1 Go to commentsLet’s not forget about Ardie Savea just yet.
4 Go to commentsThe URC and the Euro Championscup can’t run at the same time, basically dilutes both competitions.
1 Go to comments“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
4 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
4 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
4 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
4 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
41 Go to comments