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1 week ago
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“How we’ve failed in the last few years really, really irks me,” says Alex Sanderson, Sale’s director of rugby, with a note of calm determination. As a matter of fact, he leads the Prem’s most consistent club of recent times: the only side to finish in the top four in the past three seasons. Narrowly denied by Leicester in last season’s semi-final and Bath the year before, Owen Farrell and Saracens had too much in the 2023 final at Twickenham: could this, finally, be the Sharks’ time?
“We just haven’t failed at our best,” Sanderson says of those recent near-misses before the visit of Newcastle Red Bulls. “We’ve left it a little bit too late in the season. I feel like we saw elements of our best in last season’s run-in, but it’s very difficult to maintain.”
This campaign began with a bonus-point victory over Gloucester before succumbing to the champions on a stormy night in Bath last week. For Sanderson, who prefers his players to be motivated internally rather than by external factors, what would success look like next June?
“You can measure it on outcome: that’s about winning a final,” he says. “Anybody with aspirations of the top four would say the same. But that’s just the by-product of making good on my words to all the fans I speak to every year. The supporters’ club meals I do … I’ve believed it [a title win] and I haven’t delivered on it. So I don’t want to be some kind of cheap fraud.”
No one could accuse Sanderson of that, but the strong words demonstrate his desire. “I speak on behalf of the group,” he says. “There’s making good on the resources the owners have pumped in: I want to do that for them as well. These are bigger drivers than just winning a cup.”
Sanderson is evidently capable of honest self-analysis, something he demands among his squad. What are the lessons he has learned in almost 20 years of coaching? “You have a plan and hope it’s going to work out,” he says. “You hope for the best. But generally you have to make do with what’s good enough. Getting my head around that has been a big challenge.
“If I could work 24 hours a day to have complete control and prescribe an outcome I would do that. What I’m learning is that I can’t. I’m willing to let things go.”
Coaching, Sanderson says, is “a brilliant tool for self-awareness. Young groups of men from 20 to 35. You’ve got to keep pace with them. They’re learning and growing so you’ve got to do it as well. I enjoy that aspect.”
Since 2021 the former Bath and Leicester fly-half George Ford has devoted his considerable talent to the Sharks. “If you could bottle George Ford you could sell it in Waitrose,” Sanderson says, joking.
If he could exert control over Ford’s future, would it mean a coaching role in Greater Manchester? “We laugh about it,” Sanderson says. “I say he’s going to have my job. He’s like: ‘I don’t want your job.’ Well, I say: ‘You’re having it, George.’
“That would be the dream wouldn’t it? To keep him on for a few years, have a coaching role set up for him when he retires. To be half an hour from where his family is in the north where he’s resettled. That would be a dream for the club, I’m sure, and for him.”
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Sanderson appointed the front-rower Ross Harrison as Sale’s ‘captain of energy’ a few years ago. Harrison retired last season having made more than 300 apperances and it is a tribute to the environment created by Sanderson that he remains involved.
“He works part-time in the gym. We trialled it in pre-season. It was like: ‘How’s this going to go, Rosco? We want the best of you energy-wise.’ We gave it a trial run. Honestly, after the first few days, the lads took to him so well. He’s flying and we’re negotiating a long-term part-time contract.”
The England flanker Tom Curry remains sidelined for the Newcastle match, as he recovers from wrist surgery, while his twin, Ben, continues to manage a persistent hamstring injury, with uncertainty over if and when surgery may happen. After an enforced break post-British & Irish Lions tour, Luke Cowan-Dickie “is up for selection,” Sanderson says. “You can make your own conclusions about whether we’ll pick a Lions hooker.”
Dan du Preez remains sidelined but is back in training while the Wales prop WillGriff John is suspended after being cited against Bath. Sale announced this week that the long-serving back Rob du Preez will leave next summer to pursue an opportunity overseas. Yet more motivation, then, for Sanderson and his players to claim that elusive Prem crown.
