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Sale reveal meeting lined up with some out-of-work Wasps targets

By Liam Heagney
(Photo by Matthew Lewis/Getty Images for Sale Sharks)

Sale boss Alex Sanderson has revealed he is due to meet with some out-of-work Wasps players on Friday, three days after the clubs were due to clash in a Premiership Rugby Cup game that was cancelled due to the Coventry-based falling into administration and ceasing trading.

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Sale versus Wasps was originally scheduled to go ahead on Tuesday night at the Coventry Building Society Arena, but Wasps were suspended last Wednesday by the RFU after they admitted they were likely to go into administration – something that came to pass on Monday when it was confirmed that 167 players and staff had been made redundant.

Just over 24 hours after that desperate development at Wasps, Sale boss Sanderson explained on Tuesday afternoon that he was interested in talking with some of these out-of-work players – he understandably wouldn’t say who – and was told by co-owner Simon Orange not to hesitate in recruiting if there was some wriggle room remaining within the Sharks salary cap or there was a need for an injury dispensation signing.

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“We have some interest,” volunteered Sanderson at his media briefing ahead of next Sunday’s home game in Manchester against Harlequins, the 2021 league champions. “We have a little modicum of room so we looking at a couple of lads and I’m meeting a few on Friday…

“There are a lot of good players, a lot of good coaches and a lot of good members of staff who will no doubt because of their quality get themselves jobs and get themselves back into the game. It doesn’t make it any easier in the short term to have that amount of turmoil and unrest.”

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Amid an anxious climate where both Wasps and Worcester have gone to the wall within weeks of each other to leave the Premiership reduced from 13 to eleven clubs, there has been speculation that some other clubs are also under severe financial pressures. Sanderson, though, insisted Sale isn’t a business under threat, the director of rugby explaining he is in regular communications with the owners backrolling the Sharks.

“I speak to Simon regularly,” he assured. “I was on the phone last night at half-eight and he stressed the point this morning [Tuesday] if there was room in the cap and we needed players for injury dispensation then we should spend that money on those players. That was reinforcement enough that the resources and the investment is still there on our part.

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“The financial world is not in a good place. Like, my brother [ex-England international Pat] works in it and it is all doom and gloom, and a lot of these (rugby club) owners are people who have got money invested in the financial world.

“Most clubs are looking for further investment to add to their security because of the way the world is financially at the moment and it is there in the background, but I have been given every assurance that as a club we are strong and are invested.

“I know for a fact he [Orange] has written the club into his will, which goes to show you how invested they are ’til death and then beyond. We are very lucky in that sense.”

It was over the weekend that Sale were linked with ex-Wallabies international Tevita Kuridrani, who has been unattached since the Top 14 relegation of Biarritz earlier this year, but Sanderson seemed to pour cold water that he could be a short-term signing for the injury Conor Doherty and Luke James.

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Referencing how the injury dispensation process works, Sanderson said: “If you get an injury and it is beyond twelve weeks you are able to apply for injury dispensation and that is for a like-for-like player. The salary is in and around what that player was worth but more so the standard of the player has to be comparable, so you can’t lose an academy player and get in a 70-capped Kuridrani.

“It’s an ever-shifting environment. The climate right now is a buyers’ market which is a horrendous expression but it is because there are a lot of players on the market so you just have got to keep having conversations. It’s a never-ending task – recruitment and retention – because all the jigsaws have to fit within that salary cap.”

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J
Jon 7 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

39 Go to comments
A
Adrian 12 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

39 Go to comments
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