With the start of the PREM season
upon us, Sale Sharks have a tough home fixture against Bristol Bears to start off.
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The
Sharks have a massive incoming transfer list, with the calibre of England centurion
Courtney Lawes, Wales' Nicky Smith as well as PREM stalwarts in
Joe Marchant and Alex Lozowski.
The Northern force are looking
to kick on what was a disappointing 2025/26 season.
Sale have had two PREM cup
ties against Bath and Gloucester respectively to get their team up to scratch, as well as in house friendlies against Championship outfits Worcester Warriors and Caldy. Bristol will be the
first real test for Sale with both sides being as close to full strength as
possible.
A very young Sale outfit went down
to play Gloucester last weekend, and standing out was young fly half Ollie Davies. “Without a
shadow of a doubt, he has the talent, and he needs to mature as a rugby player,”
said the club’s Director of Rugby Alex Sanderson.
Most title winning sides have two
quality options at fly half; Northampton have Fin Smith and Anthony Belleau;
Bath have Finn Russell and Santiago Carreras.
With the recruitment Sale have
put in place, George Ford will have someone who is a “ready made international”
in Alex Lozowski, who Sanderson says; "Is unbelievably calm and able to support Fordy, if he is
not playing himself in the centres,” replicating the role of predecessor Rob du
Preez.
The scrum ahead of this new
season at Sale, has been strengthened tenfold. Incoming Welsh pair Nicky Smith and Tomas Francis have bolstered Sale’s options in the front row department.
Sanderson couldn’t
speaker higher of the Welshmen: “As much as they bring on the field, which is
substantial, the biggest contribution they have brought thus far is what they
have brought off it.”
Meanwhile, England back rower Tom Curry is
relishing the opportunity of playing with such a varied back row. The stacked squad depth features the likes
of Jacques Vermeulen, club captain Ernst van Rhyn, his twin brother Ben, new
signings Courtney Lawes and Christ Tshuinza, clubman Sam Dugdale and young
bucks in Reuben Logan, Seb Kelly and Tristan Woodman.
"There is definitely an
element of [your best mates being your fiercest competition] but more so the
day to day stuff and you raise your standard.”
This is an area where Director of Rugby
Alex Sanderson will definitely have headaches. “We don’t know our strongest
combination, and rotation might have its part to play, but I see them all as
back five players”
With selection within the back
row being even more competitive, Curry doesn’t know where he fits into it, all
he knows is he “wants to play” claiming his unique selling point being in
defence with how many involvements he gets in attack.
Having worn all three
back row numbers on his back in 6,7 and 8, Curry is starting to prefer playing
8 with it being a mix of set piece and middle involvement.
With 65 England caps to his name,
Curry featured in England’s Summer tour of South Africa, Fiji and Argentina,
however the 28 year old is always grateful to wear the rose on the chest
despite not playing all the minutes he would’ve wanted.
It has been 11 months since we
last saw both the Curry twins playing on the same pitch through various
reasons, but for Tom, to play alongside Ben “it’s pretty refreshing to even
just train with him again, and it has given me a lot of energy.”
