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'Some interest from Edinburgh who don’t mind poaching our players'
Sale boss Alex Sanderson has delivered a mid-winter update about the Gallagher Premiership club’s contracting for the 2024/25 season. The league leaders have England stars such as George Ford and Manu Tuilagi up for renewal while up-and-coming talents like Gus Warr are also in negotiations.
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It was 2020, following the pandemic stoppage of rugby, when the PRL cut the league’s salary can by £1.4million, reducing it to £5m from the 2021/22 season. That figure is now set to return to £6.4m next season, but that additional largesse isn’t making life easier for Sanderson, who took over as director of rugby at Sale in January 2021.
“It’s creating a bit of tension for us,” he admitted about getting thing organised for next season at a time when Sale are leading the way in England with six wins in seven matches this term ahead of Friday night’s visit to Harlequins.
“We are in negotiation with a few lads who have been with us for a while and understand what their market value looks like minus percentage because we believe we will look after them better. That is the policy we have gone with. Recruiting a strong squad – you can’t go top-end for anyone. There is always with more money more need, more space within their cap for a certain calibre or type of player.
“We have said we will be competitive but we can’t go top-end if we want to have as strong a squad as we have got. We are not looking to recruit in any one area, it’s more about retention of what we have at present. I will add this as a caveat, from my limited experience there are always two or three that you had planned for your future that have other plans for themselves and their families, that will happen.
“All the cap increases are taken up by the increasing market value of our already resident players. We are quite proud of talking about the young squad that we have got, the mainly young squad that we have got. We have got the core of the squad which you will which is 24 years old and their salary rises as their experience and the market values does.
“We have eight people meeting Steve (Borthwick) next Tuesday, that has gone to eight from four to a couple when I first joined. With that increase in attention comes an increase in salary within the cap.
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“Gus Creevy had interest from Toulon before he came here. He turned them down because he wanted to be part of this. Some interest in Gus Warr from Edinburgh who don’t mind poaching our players, so we are in negotiations with him. Quite a long way in positive negotiations with him at the moment because we want to keep him.
“I’m sure someone will come in for Manu, but he turned down other offers last year to be here. No player has come to me and said, ‘I have got this and I want this’ as yet. We are still sitting down at the table with them, talking about our future.”
That said, Sanderson is braced to potentially lose some players he is hoping to keep at Sale. “It’s the brutal part of the job that you think you know where someone is at, you have got the best environment and you are building like we are and there is a lot of excitement around it and yet that doesn’t necessarily fit for everyone that you have made those plans for.
“Like, this is the squad we want for 25/26 but there were a few that left at the end of last season for family reasons. I have learned to cope with it better, it’s not about me, it’s never about me but not to take it personally and just understand that it is part of the job, there are always two or three you think you would have kept and probably two or three that you had other plans for.”
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Comments on RugbyPass
Pacific Lions, cry me a river
124 Go to commentsThis is the single worst piece of journalism I have ever seen since your last one. As a neutral, who really states that there should be an asterisk next to a win? You are an utter embarrassment to real AB fans, journalism and that joke of a house which pays you for this nonsense. Get a life, Ben.
124 Go to commentsGuys. Cancel the World Cup champions after this analysis. It changes everything. Ben knows. We’ll have to unengrave the Bokke off the trophy and hand it to the ABs, now that I’ve been enlightened about this illegitimate win. This needs to be done. Now!
124 Go to commentsBen is right here though, Springboks were woefully poor with the advantage they had throughout this game. The France match was heroic because that was an even contest this match had it taken place in Rugby Championship would have been an easy win for NZ. If anything this match should tell the Bok coaches that a lot of this team should be changed. They beat this same NZ team by record margin with the same circumstances but with a different core. They bring back the tried and tested guys and they nearly botch this game.
124 Go to commentsI knew who wrote this article from the first few words in the headline…lol. The red card actually did the ABs a favour. It galvanized them, only then did they step up a gear. Before that there was zero momentum.
124 Go to commentsFirstly the foul on Bongi was a planned move just like the NZ master plan with Bryce Lawrence you kiwis are filthy fux perhaps try to play a cleaner game next time I doubt that’s possible tho but don’t worry world rugby is on yr side they trying to take away all the BOKS strengths to help all you weakling as Jeremy Clarkson would say LA OO ZA ERR..🤣
124 Go to commentsAbsolutely spot on Ben. I certainly wouldn't gloat over a win like that. Frustrating as it is it's done and dusted and history will forever show the result.
124 Go to commentsHo hum.
124 Go to commentsNo question they were the better team. But that is the beauty of sport isn’t it!
124 Go to commentsEveryone is into Hurling in Ireland according to Porter, but only 11 of Ireland's 32 counties enter a team into the national competition. Same old blarney.
1 Go to commentsLet’s be honest. The draw and scheduling in the World Cup was a joke but South Africa found a way after having to go the hard (nearly impossible) way to the Cup Final via France and England. NZ had a hard game against France (lost) and had 5 weeks to prepare for the Quarter, 3 weeks knowing it was Ireland. NZ theerfore had to win one big game against an Irish team who played SA and then Scotland 7 days before. They won and it was de facto a semi final because they were playing a relatively weak Argentina team and it was a walk over. In the final a very rested NZ team was playing a very tired SA team and still lost. They couldn’t score more than 11 points. Put another way SA had to find a way to win while tired and they achieved that. NZ should thank their lucky stars that they fixed the scheduling in 2015 otherwise they would be dealing with a Bok treble.
124 Go to commentsPerhaps if Bongi wasn’t targeted and removed from the game in the first 3 minutes it would have been quite a different game. Maybe if NZ also faced the same competition the Boks faced to their win NZ would have looked quite different. The final score shows who outplayed who.
124 Go to commentsRubbish article! Abuladze played most of Exeters matches when fit. He got injured against Glasgow a while ago and is out for the rest of the season, thats why he hasnt played for Exeter and Georgia recently. Do some proper research next time!
1 Go to commentsGotta love it when kids throw their toys out the pram and can’t hack it with the grown ups debate. Here’s looking at you turlough! 😉🤣
148 Go to commentsThey lost the game period move on
124 Go to commentsSpringboks won! Stop winging. You can change the game however much you and your rugby colonizing IRB want to and the Springboks will win you at that too. Your mind is colonized my friend get a life
124 Go to commentsBen, nobody gets fooled anymore by selective and biased data to support an hypothesis. Games are decided on such small margins these days that you win some and lose some, and dominance is a thing of the rugby past. Look at the RWC circle of fortune…. Ireland beats SA who beat France who beat NZ who beat Ireland. And so it goes on. Match officials help to eliminate real indiscretions. If they had been with us years before, no doubt results would have been different. Remember Andy Haden’s dive from a lineout in 1978 for which a match-wining penalty was awarded? Wales should have beaten the ABs that day. They took the loss like the gentlemen they were.
124 Go to commentsWith all the analysis and how good the all blacks were.The fundamental mistake with the ABs is that this is a test match and not an exhibition.There is no better team(country) in world rugby than the Boks that knows how to win a test match(we are post masters at this).We know our rules, we have the discipline, we tackle like beasts, we take our points and we never give up.I now have educated the ABs supporters(at least say thank you).Please stop “bitching” , accept what the outcome is and move along swiftly.
124 Go to commentsAnd they came from behind to win two big games before the final. No one can say what would have happened. Had the boks gone behind the game plan changes and the result may changes. Ifs and ands are irrelevant. The boks won. Neutral critics enjoyed the games they played. Its not a popularity contest. Get over it and move on.
124 Go to commentsI'm happy for the people of SA to get a second WC. And I mean that. I was very disappointed with this man's “stand on the hand” incident with Josh Van Der Flyer (Ireland). Ireland's downfall in the last WC was they did not rotate their first 15 as the head coach probably should have. That said, I'm happy for SA and genuinely hope it lifts the mood in their country. Ireland did beat them in the first match of the tournament. And before the trolls start trolling ….. please don't bother. Etzbeth said recently that the Irish players said after the match “see you in the final”…..this was actually wishing the SA team the best of luck in the rest, the Irish team were not dismissing the AB’s. This is what Etzbeth was implying. But he was wrong. I no longer live in Ireland. But I hope to see them lift that cup before I pass. Anyway, congratulations SA. 👍
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