Harlequins’ Twickenham tie against Gloucester will attract the biggest crowds this weekend with more than 75,000 tickets sold, but Sale’s visit to Northampton at Franklin’s Gardens, which has sold out, is perhaps the final Premiership tour of 2023 It will be the most impressive fixture.
Championship-chasing Sharks claimed a reassuring victory in last season’s final against Saracens, who denied them three days before Christmas, and director of rugby Alex Sanderson expressed his determination to perform better next summer. “We want to go back there,” he said. “We got a taste, but now I want more than a taste.”
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The winner of Sale’s meeting with the knowledgeable Saints will move to the top of a fiercely competitive table, at least until Johann van Graan’s Bath go looking for victory at Leicester on Christmas table-gracing Sunday.
Phil Dowson’s Northampton have gone on a five-match winning streak in the Champions Cup in recent weeks, beating Gloucester, Saracens and Harlequins, as well as Glasgow Warriors and Toulon.
But no team has won more Premiership games than Sale (Bath, Saints and Exeter have won six) and Sanderson said prop Ross Harrison had been integral to their vibrant form in the first half of the season.
The Sharks’ attacking dominance played a key role in the 22-20 victory over Sarries and Sanderson said he had appointed the front-rower “energy captain”, who will start alongside hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie and prop Nick Schonert on Saturday.
“We focus a lot on the exchange of energy,” said Sanderson, the thoughtful coach who has set up a “mental gym” for his players at Sharks Headquarters. “There’s been quite a bit of research done on how you can conserve energy and what those energy exchanges look like. They come in many different forms, but I made him the captain of this. ‘Can you be the captain of energy?’ “And he uses it. It helps him because it keeps him in the game and in the moment.”
Perhaps aptly, Harrison states that his main interest outside of rugby is “sleeping”, and anyone who wants to dismiss his title as meaningless psychopathic nonsense would do well to take note of Sale’s upward curve under Sanderson. Throw in brutal performances combining intense physicality with relentless attack and defense (not to mention the number in the ‘W’ column this season) and it will be no surprise to see them back at Twickenham next June.
Never one to shirk responsibility, Sanderson said it was up to him to motivate his team for the difficult appointment with Northampton, who have made eight changes to the starting XV.
“It’s not up to them to be motivated every week, right?” said. “In the old days it was: We’ll give you clarity, we’ll give you the game model, we’ll coach you – but it’s up to you to get your mindset right. I do not believe in that. I think this is an evasion caused by coaches not taking responsibility. “What we’re trying to do is give them the mental tools, the skill set to arm themselves.”
Sanderson was also quick to talk about their rivals on Saturday, when Alex Coles made his 100th appearance. “Northampton are the form side in Europe and the Premier League, aren’t they?” said. “There’s a lot of talk that their physicality has increased and that’s a great thing for a team like us that prides itself on its physicality. It’s a head-to-head we’re looking forward to. We’ve looked at this point in the middle of the season to set our intentions for the new year. So to some extent that takes that out of the game.” It makes it more important.”
Meanwhile, life for Gloucester and director of rugby George Skivington has become tougher over the past 12 months ahead of Saturday evening’s box office clash with the Quins. They suffered a narrow defeat at home to the Saints before Christmas and sit second with two wins to their name.
“I’ll be honest with you, 2023 has been a painful year,” Skivington said after replacing the front row of Jamal Ford-Robinson, George McGuigan and Kirill Gotovtsev to face Harlequins. “There were some good moments but not as many in the Premier League.”
With Argentina’s Santi Carreras at full-back, Wales’ Louis Rees-Zammit on the wing and Scotland’s Adam Hastings running things at fly-half, the Cherry and Whites have no shortage of attacking quality. “This will probably be the first time in 2023 that we have more than about 75% of our roster fit in,” Skivington said. “No excuses, but it hasn’t been that enjoyable a year.”
Regarding the team’s 2024 goals, he said: “We need to hold on again and get our identity back. At least we don’t want to be questioned about our ‘D’ and work rate. Our goal should be to get back to that violent side that we know we are.”