by Harlequins Twickenham’s game against Gloucester will attract the biggest crowd this weekend, with more than 75,000 tickets sold, but Sale’s visit to Northampton at a sell-out Franklin’s Gardens could be the most exciting game of the 2023 Premiership final .
The title-chasing Sharks scored a friendly against Saracens, the side who denied them in last season’s final, three days before Christmas and their director of rugby, Alex Sanderson, has said he is determined to go better next summer. “We want to go back there,” he said. “We’ve had a taste, but I want more than a taste now.”
Related: Henry Slade led the dominant way Exeter raid Leicester
The winner of Sale’s meeting with the in-form Saints will reach the summit of the highly competitive table, at least until Johann van Graan’s Bath, the table toppers over Christmas, chase Leicester on Sunday.
Phil Dowson’s Northampton are on a five-game winning streak after beating Gloucester, Saracens and Harlequins at home, as well as Glasgow Warriors and Toulon in the Champions Cup in recent weeks.
But no team has won more Premier League games than Sale with seven – Bath, Saints and Exeter have combined for six – and Sanderson said prop Ross Harrison was central to his winning form in the first half of the campaign.
The Sharks’ scrum dominance was a significant part of that 22-20 win against Sarries and Sanderson said he named the front-rower, who starts on Saturday alongside hurler Luke Cowan-Dickie and prop Nick Schonert, as ” “captain of energy” by him.
“We’re focusing a lot on energy exchanges,” said Sanderson, the meditative coach who installed a “mental gym” for his players at Sharks HQ. “There’s been very extensive research into how you can maintain energy, and what those energy exchanges look like. They come in different forms but I have mastered that. I said: ‘Can you be captain of energy?’ and he is driving it. It helps him because it keeps him in the game and in the moment.”
Fittingly, perhaps, Harrison cites “sleeping” as his main interest outside of rugby, and anyone with a sense of humor could dismiss his title as meaningless psychobabble looking at Sale’s rise under Sanderson. Consider the relentless performances tempered by intense physicality in attack and ruthless defense – not to mention that figure in the “W” column this season – and it would be no surprise to see them back at Twickenham next month Next June.
Not one to shirk responsibility, Sanderson said it is up to him to motivate his squad for the demanding date with Northampton, who makes eight changes to his XV.
“They don’t have to be motivated every week, do they?” he said. “In the old days it was like, right: we’ll give you clarity, we’ll give you a game model, we’ll coach you – but it’s up to you to correct your mindset. I don’t believe that. I think that’s a cop-out from coaches not taking responsibility. What we’re trying to do is give them the mental tools, the skill set to be able to handle themselves.”
Nor was Sanderson talking about Saturday’s opponent, Alex Coles, who makes his 100th appearance at lock. “Northampton are the form side in Europe and the Premier League, aren’t they?” he said. “There’s a lot of talk about their increased physicality, which is great for a team that prides itself, as we do, on physicality. That’s one by one we’re looking forward to. We looked at this point, halfway through the season, to set our new year’s resolution. And that, to some extent, makes this eventMore
Meanwhile, for Gloucester and their director of rugby George Skivington, life has been tougher in the last 12 months leading up to Saturday afternoon’s box office date with Quins. They suffered a narrow home defeat at Saints before Christmas and were second with two wins.
“I’ll be honest with you, 2023 was a painful year,” said Skivington as he was named in a starting line-up of Jamal Ford-Robinson, George McGuigan and Kirill Gotovtsev to face Harlequins. “There were some good moments but not so much in the Premier League.”
With Argentina’s Santi Carreras at full-back, Britain’s Louis Rees-Zammit on the wing and Scotland’s Adam Hastings leading the way in the halves, the Cherries and Whites have no shortage of attacking quality. “This is probably the first moment in 2023 when our squad has been around 75% more fit,” Skivington said. “You have no excuse, but it has not been such a pleasant year.”
On the team’s goals for 2024, he said: “We need to rebuild and get our identity back. At least we don’t want to be asked about our ‘D’ rate and our work rate. Our objective must be to return to that fierce side that we know we are.”
