Sanderson: Sale 'looking at 50 points' against Bath if things continue

Alex Sanderson has told his Sale Sharks side that another slow start against Gallagher PREM champions Bath this weekend could mean they are in for a long Sunday afternoon.

Last weekend at Sandy Park, Sale allowed Exeter Chiefs to dominate the opening exchanges and found themselves 12-0 down after 15 minutes thanks to tries for Stephen Varney and Campbell Ridl.

Sanderson says that his side needs to bring their A-game because a start like the one in Exeter could see them blown away by one of the most clinical sides in Europe, who recovered from 10-0 down to beat Saracens 62-15 last weekend.

“I’ve been down there (Bath), and you’re looking at 50 points when you’re 12 points down. Sarries started really well. We looked at their game and showed a few clips. We can’t afford to start like that again, not against the champions. You are spot on.

“Bath were really clinical, really clinical, really sharp, squeezed well and executed a lot on first-phase turnovers. If you give them transition, I think they are number one in the PREM at the moment in scoring tries from transition.

Fixture

Gallagher Premiership

Sale

07:00

29 Mar 26

Bath

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“You’d probably give that kind of kudos over to teams that have traditionally been known for it, Quins, or Northampton or even your Saracens, but Bath are way up there.

“We’ve got to limit or at least control how we turn the ball over to them. That’s one of loads of areas, you’ve got to be on your mettle against Bath, isn’t it?

“We reckon we left four tries out there with a 33 per cent conversion rate in their 22. Got to be better than that, and we are going to be moving forward. Scoring a try off an opposition scrum five metres out shows signs of growth.

“Our phase defence was something I was really happy with. But as I said, we did loads of good things, you can build on that performance,” he told RugbyPass.