Diamond wants a treble tonic from his Sale troops
SHARKS BOSS ADMITS IT’S NOW CRUNCH TIME IN THE PREMIERSHIP
SALE begin what director of rugby Steve Diamond believes could be a crucial three weeks today when they host Bath in the Aviva Premiership at the AJ Bell Stadium.
The clash is the first leg of a key trio of league fixtures, with the Sharks also facing a trip to Gloucester a week today before another huge home clash against Harlequins on January 6.
With the campaign officially hitting the halfway point after this weekend, the Sale boss knows it marks a defining period in the season as Sale – who lie in ninth place with just Northampton, Worcester and London Irish below them – look to move up the table.
And Diamond admits his troops will need to be at their very best if they are tackle the formidable challenge presented by Todd Blackadder’s Bath side, who are fourth in the Premiership.
“I think the next three weeks will go a long way to determining our league fortunes and it all starts on Saturday,” Diamond told the club’s website.
“We are all well aware that we have a big job on our hands this weekend.
“Bath are a really well coached side and they will come here off the back of a big win in Europe over Toulon, so we know that we will have to be at our best if we are to compete with them.
“But we are at home where we have been playing well and we will be going with a full-strength side and we want to try and keep up our good form at home.
“The players have trained well this week and everyone is really looking forward to the game.
“Hopefully, we should have a really good crowd there to support us and the backing from our fans has been great this season.”
Tomorrow is the first game at the AJ Bell since the opening of the new access road which should ease traffic problems which have happered the new stadium.
However, fans are urged to get to the game early, with the Trafford Centre expected to by busier than ever on the final Saturday before Christmas.
Sale also announced this week that they will move home games from Friday nights to Saturday from now on.
“The good news is that this week we’ve had the boost of the new access A57 bridge connecting the Trafford Centre to Salford and the AJ Bell Stadium finally opening which should really help access issues for our fans,” said Diamond.
“Switching to playing our home games on Saturdays has also helped so the Bath game is an occasion that we are all really looking forward to.”
SALE TEAM: James O’Connor; Denny Solomona, Sam James, Rohan Janse Van Rensburg, Byron McGuigan; Faf De Klerk, AJ MacGinty; Ross Harrison, Rob Webber, Will Griff John, Bryn Evans, Andrei Ostrikov, Jono Ross (capt), Ben Curry, Josh Strauss.
REPLACEMENTS: Marc Jones, James Flynn, Halani Aulika, George Nott, Cameron Neild, Will Cliff, Mike Haley, Josh Charnley.