'They are on the radar': The unheralded Sale players England are considering as potential summer tour picks
New Sale boss Alex Sanderson is delighted that his inclination to give youth a chance at the Sharks resulted in a visit to Manchester this week by England assistant Matt Proudfoot amid speculation that loosehead Bevan Rodd, tighthead James Harper and scrum-half Raffi Quirke are all possible summer tour picks for Eddie Jones.
England have July tour matches planned in America against Scotland, the USA and Canada and there is speculation that Jones will select numerous unheralded youngsters while his front-liners are away in South Africa with the Lions.
Rodd, the 20-year-old loosehead who is also Scottish eligible, made an initial breakthrough at Sale under Steve Diamond but he has really come to the fore in recent months under Sanderson, starting on eight occasions and featuring twice as a sub in the new director of rugby’s ten games so far at the club.
Quirke, another 20-year-old, has also come to prominence under Sanderson, making one start and five sub appearances in recent weeks while prop Harper, also 20, was given a debut off the bench last month. “We have had Proudfoot, the scrum coach, down to have a look at him [Rodd], have a chat so he is on the radar as is Harper, as is Raffi, as is Josh Beaumont,” revealed Sanderson at the Sale media conference ahead of this Saturday’s Champions Cup quarter-final at La Rochelle.
“They are on the radar, which is really good. It shows the form they are in on the back of some of the performances the team have put in over the last few weeks. It was just last week, he [Proudfoot] just called up last week to see if he could come in (on Tuesday).
"I know he is on the England radar and is very highly rated"
– Alex Sanderson sounds delighted with the depth coming through at Sale No9#PremRugby #NORvSALhttps://t.co/o0PQWcceJU
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 10, 2021
“They have got the tour on the horizon and I’m sure they are just looking at some of these young lads who weren’t on my radar, to be honest, when I came here. I didn’t know too much about Bevan Rodd and Ewan Ashman (Scotland U20s) or Raffi Quirke but stepping in and seeing them train, it’s like, ‘Wow, these boys have got some talent’,” continued Sale boss Sanderson, who joined the Premiership club in January.
“I have rotated them in and I have played them and they have played really well so they have probably moved up the pecking order in terms of England succession plans as well. I can only assume, I don’t know how it works but you play well for your club you get noticed by your country. That is the way it has worked in the past.”
It was June 2019 when 29-year-old Beaumont skippered an England XV against the Barbarians at Twickenham and the uncapped second row is another that has risen to prominence at Sale in recent weeks following a lengthy spell out of the game with a serious injury. “He has led really well. There was a question of would he have played if Lood (de Jager) had been around? This is my point about bringing in people who are really high calibre and you need that in the Champions Cup.
“He led against Wasps two weeks ago, we got four yellow cards and he brought a team through (to win) which shows exceptional leadership qualities and that is when things aren’t going well for you. Then when things are going well for you, as they did last weekend (at Scarlets), he kept them on it for 80 minutes. Aside from his playing ability he has got good leadership qualities as well. We’ll miss Lood but we are happy to have both.”
Speculation emerged at the weekend that the giant Sale lock was a Springboks doubt to face the Lions following latest injury blow https://t.co/mumFR4uB38
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) April 7, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments