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The 'sweet spot' Sale hope to hit loaning out their young players
Sale Sharks will look to strengthen their fledgling relationship with Caldy after the Wirral outfit won promotion to the Championship for the 2022/23 season at the expense of Sale FC, the side that Alex Sanderson’s Gallagher Premiership club had been providing most of its academy stars to.
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Whereas Caldy only made use of Elliot Gourley and to a lesser extent Nye Thomas over the course of their title-winning National 1 campaign, the Premiership club were heavily invested in the namesake amateur club on its doorstep in Manchester.
Sharks transition coach Neil Briggs coaches at Sale FC but no sooner was the grassroots promotion race decided against them was he on the blower to Caldy inquiring how Sanderson and co could help the promotion winners make the step up to a level of rugby they have not participated in before.
Caldy head coach Matt Cairns, an ex-Saracens teammate of Sanderson, has also visited the Sale training ground at Carrington and plans are afoot for a pre-season friendly between the Premiership and Championship clubs to further bolster relations.
The Sale belief is that the more their academy players play second-tier matches rather than being in the gym, the closer they will be to making a Premiership first-team breakthrough under Sanderson.
Asked by RugbyPass if the Sharks will offer more of their young players to Caldy in an effort to help steel the Championship newcomers, Sanderson said: “It’s a huge possibility. We filled Sale FC up with a few more of our players post-Christmas, up to a maximum of six because that is what the laws stipulate, and I pushed to get them promoted.
“They are just across the road, they’re 50 metres away and Neil Briggs, our transition coach, coaches them so we have a good link there. But knowing Matt Cairns, we all went down to watch the game that decided Nat 1 at Caldy and it was a great day, they had barbecues on and the banks were full.
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“It was a brilliant day for that level of rugby for the north and Caldy won and went nuts as we know, went absolutely crazy and Sale FC went home with the tail between their legs but the next day we were on the phone to Matt. Neil Briggs, who had to swallow a bit of his own pride, was saying, ‘How can we help you and help us to make this a good thing for the north?’
“Our lads don’t have to go down to a Doncaster or a Cov where it is too far to train whereas they could nip across 45 minutes, we can supply them with some good players on a semi-permanent, dual-registered basis and they get the best level of rugby closer to home, so they have got a decent support base and don’t have to travel all the time.
“Matt Cairns has been in, he is bringing his coaches down over the pre-season, we are in the process of arranging our first warm-up game against them down at their place to have a drink and fully integrate ourselves with Caldy as we were with Sale FC.
“We will still use FC because we have a big batch of academy players coming through, so FC still hold a good position and prospects for some of our young lads but for those who need that level up under Premiership then Caldy is probably is the next step.”
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Emerging out of a pandemic that put a stop to so much rugby at developmental levels, how important it is for promising youngsters at a Premiership club such as Sale to now get as much game time as possible to accelerate their progress?
“They reckon 15 to 20 games is the sweet spot for these lads to physically develop in the gym and get the learnings on the field,” continued Sanderson. “It was the same for the lads who played for FC, we got to Christmas time and we just couldn’t get them into a place unless they were training full-time.
“We couldn’t get them Coventry, couldn’t get them into Donny which is fair enough because you want your lads there on a Tuesday, Thursday night to play at the weekend.
“That wasn’t the case with Caldy so much and it wasn’t the case with FC, they could train with us and go down on Thursday for the one session and play. Elliot revelled in the most consistent rugby but go through the list, Ethan Caine, Joe Bedlow, Connor Doherty, James Harper, Callum Ford, Jack Metcalf, Joe Carpenter, Nye Thomas… all of them who played Nat 1, got their 15, 20-game stint in that league and it brought them on.
“It kept them involved, it kept them learning. We have now sent five lads out to Australia to Sydney to play another eight to ten fixtures to make up for that covid period and we will get them back mid-pre-season. We thought their best development would be on the rugby field and not in the gym over the course of pre-season.
“Rugby is the best way to learn, not doing drills, not just getting big and strong. It’s getting out there and playing men’s rugby so it is great for them, it’s a big part of the long term plan, to get games under their belt.”
Comments on RugbyPass
One that will start to come up from now on is penalties for back pushes during kick chase scrambles. Very difficult to detect. In Croke Park if you replay the Hendy NH try, you will see Furbank push Porter in the back, who collides with Larmour knocking the ball across into Hendy’s path to dot down. A more significant example was in the RWC QTR final where Arendse pushes Fickou into two other French players for the ball to spill into Arendse’s path for him to gather and run in to score SAs first try. Not cheating if you are not caught and very difficult to spot but with kicking becoming so critical I feel its an area that will referreeed/TMO-ed more.
3 Go to commentsWhat a pathetic little twit Andy Goode is, as if we care what he thinks…..😂
114 Go to commentsFoxy has been a wonderful player for the Scarlets and Wales.
1 Go to commentsNika the Georgian is the best referee in the world at the moment. Luckily we will be spared the shite SH refs and Barnes will hopefully remain retired given how shite and embarrassing he was at the RWC.
3 Go to commentsThis is the most exciting game of the summer imo, as we really won’t know in advance how both teams are going to play. - Will Robertson just reproduce his Crusaders tactics from last year, or will there be a conscious effort to borrow from the Hurricanes and Blues, and from the aspects of the ABs world cup strategy that worked well? - England under Borthwick have put in some good performances playing attacking rugby, and some good performances playing kick-oriented defensive rugby. Will Borthwick try to merge them together into a single all-court game, or will he continue switching between different approaches depending on the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition?
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
9 Go to commentsFinals are always tense affairs for the players so I do not expect this to be a spectacle of running rugby unfortunately.
3 Go to commentsBulls***': Ex-England international calls out Eben Etzebeth… Not to his face but from very far away… after he’d left. Checked to make sure he wasn’t in the building.
114 Go to commentsHopefully this will mean a new Auckland league team to support in the west. Big Warriors fan but it’s very, very stale on that front and I’d like the option of another team if it was to watch league again. League needs to step up BIG time if its to get anywhere, another AK team and something from the capitol or south is a must for the game.
3 Go to commentsGood, deep interview, nice job Frankie!
1 Go to commentsNRL players don’t have anywhere near the number of Tests. Some people would be happy having Rest Homes full if 40 yo ex-players walking, or hobbling more like it, into walls. It’s just a game!
4 Go to commentsNOW Razor is worried about ABs getting injured or overplayed! Didn’t bother him last year. He happily played his AB Crusaders.
4 Go to commentsWhat is the World Rugby U20 players born year.
2 Go to commentsMuch like the Chiefs finally gave up waiting for Atu Moli to ever not be injured, you have to wonder if the Chiefs and Crusaders will let Josh Lord and Ethan Blackadder go next season. They’re being well paid to sit in the injury ward every year. Better off putting those funds towards someone who might actually play.
7 Go to commentsShowed better basic skills than some nz Super sides, who probably would have botched some of those backline moves. This tournament really is too short though. Needs more teams, or have them play two rounds to properly prepare them for the near full-time NH U20 sides.
4 Go to commentsGood grief it’s only six months. Probably just upset it’s not an established kiwi entering their prime they can “project” into green to join the rest.
3 Go to commentsGood player but far from being best in the world. That's an exaggeration. Perhaps Best in world by Northern Hemisphere standards and biasis but certainly not Southern Hemi standards
3 Go to commentsWell one thing about World Cup knock out rounds and Ireland is very clear: they won’t be getting ahead of themselves in ‘27! Because making it beyond the QF is well and truly ‘IN THEIR HEADS’ now…😉
114 Go to commentsHas this guy been dope tested? Sounds like a case of “roid rage”.
1 Go to comments