Solomona driven by the battle for places at Sharks
AS if the competition Sale face week-in week-out in the English Premiership is not enough, the competition within the club is equally as challenging, according to Denny Solomona.
The New Zealand-born winger sees his Sharks team-mates as friendly opponents fighting for the same starting position.
Solomona returned to the Sale side in the Premiership Cup win over Leicester last Friday for the first time since picking up a head injury at Welford Road on September 30 and then suffering a ligament injury in training.
And he knows he has a fight on his hands to make sure he maintains his place on a regular basis.
He told M.E.N. Sport: “We’ve got four really good international wingers. We’ve got Byron McGuigan, Marland Yarde and Chris Ashton – and then you’ve got the young fellas like Aaron Reid and Paolo Odogwu.
“There’s really good competition here and I think out of all the positions, winger probably is the most, you could say, experienced and exciting position to be in at the moment.”
Solomona has used this challenge as motivation to improve his own performance. And desperate to ensure he kept his place, Solomona admits he probably pushed himself too hard in training, tearing a ligament - an injury that took six weeks to recover from.
He said: “You can’t really improve as a player if you’re week-in, week-out playing. So if you have someone breathing down your neck every week it’ll just drive you that bit more. If you lift that bit more weight, or run that bit more on the field, it’s great.
“I don’t think I’ve had this much push in a while, and I think I might have pushed myself too far where I got injured, but that’s the game. Injuries come with the game.
“It was frustrating because I was more eager to get back because of the competition and everyone was doing so well.”
As Sale return to Premiership action at Saracens on Saturday, Solomona says the mood in the camp is high, especially after the 18-16 Premiership Cup win over Leicester Tigers last Friday.
He said: “We always go out there to win, and I know that I believe that we can. Everyone has their day and if you turn up with the right mindset and train really well throughout the week, you’ll have that confidence to go out there and play well and the result will look after itself. But for myself I just need to work hard, be where I need to be and do my job and I’ll expect my other 14 team mates to do the same.”
As well as the return of Solomona, Johnny Leota and Faf de Klerk will be available along with Robert Du Preez who has been brought in as a replacement for the injured fly-half AJ MacGinty.
And Solomona relishes the injection of new and returning players.
He said: “I think the experience and the motivation that they bring is infectious. They bring a lot of hard work and a good work-ethic as well, and I think players feed off that and they just work even more for each other.”
When asked about the team’s aim for the rest of the season, Solomona said: “We need to gain momentum, especially throughout this season where there’s been a lot of international callups. There’ll be teams that will have their key players out, and if we can get a bit of momentum, get a couple of points and climb up that table, and then bring out all of our international players and test where we’re at.”