Relegation? Don’t even think about it, says lock Beaumont
LOCK Josh Beaumont says Sale cannot afford to think about relegation going into tomorrow’s fixture against Leicester Tigers, despite the Sharks sitting bottom of the Gallagher Premiership table after four games.
Steve Diamond’s men were beaten 31-13 by Wasps on Sunday, the first time they had lost at home to the side since October 2010.
It was Sale’s third loss in their opening four fixtures, and they are still without a bonus point.
“I’m not thinking about relegation,” Beaumont said. “You can’t have that mindset four games in, even though it gets mentioned in the press and murmured here round the place. We all know the potential we have as a squad, it’s just about coming together, getting through this tough phase and working on what’s not been going right for us to put it right on Sunday against Leicester.
“From an attacking point of view we just weren’t clinical enough.
“Attacking-wise we’d like to put more points on the board and put them under pressure but we let them off the hook to easily and defensively we just got caught.
“A team like Wasps with their attacking shape are going to punish you so that was where we thought the game was lost.”
Beaumont’s Sale look to recover against a struggling Tigers team, who were beaten at home by Worcester Warriors last weekend.
“Worcester went there and won last Sunday so I’m confident we can go there and get a result.
“I know that when we play the way we want to play and the way we can play then we’ll be looking to go there and get the win.”
On his own team’s form, Beaumont added: “I don’t think you can call it a blip because looking at our start to the season, we haven’t been where we want to be at.
“We’ve shown plenty of positives in these game, it’s just a case of doing it more and for longer periods as well as being more clinical when the time comes. If we go on a winning run from now on in and make up the points that we think we’ve lost, then we’ll be pushing for that top six again.”
Having suffered a disappointing start to the season, Sale boss Steve Diamond has brought in ex-England international Dorian West as a forwards’ coach to try to reverse his team’s fortunes.
“It’s been a real intense couple of days we’ve just had,” Beaumont said. “We’ve been focusing on our defence and with West coming in it has been nice to have a new voice, so it’s been a tough couple of days but also a really positive as well.”
Andrei Ostrikov returns from injury for his first game of the season for Sale, whilst Rob Webber returns at hooker and Josh Strauss is included at Number 8.
Rohan Janse Van Rensburg returns to the match-day squad, He last played for the club against Lyon in January before returning to the Lions.
■ SHARKS: 15. Byron McGuigan; 14. Denny Solomona, 13. Sam James, 12. Mark Jennings, 11. Marland Yarde; 10. AJ MacGinty, 9. Will Cliff; 1. Ross Harrison, 2. Rob Webber, 3. WillGriff John, 4. Bryn Evans, 5. Andrei Ostrikov, 6. Jono Ross (capt.), 7. Tom Curry, 8. Josh Strauss. Replacements: 16. Curtis Langdon, 17. Alexandru Tarus, 18. Joe Jones, 19.J ames Phillips, 20. Josh Beaumont, 21. Ben Curry, 22. Gus Warr, 23. Rohan Janse Van Rensburg