MIKE HALEY
Sale Sharks star relishing return to action with England in focus
MIKE Haley is striving for more consistency in “the nuts and bolts” of fullback play in a bid to get back into England contention.
Other than a brief appearance as a makeshift replacement centre against the Barbarians last May, the uncapped Sale Shark has slipped off Eddie Jones’ radar since his involvement in the England Saxons tour to South Africa in the summer of 2016 was cut short by a shoulder injury.
But with Mike Brown not getting any younger, Alex Goode out of the picture and doubts persisting over Anthony Watson as a Test quality full-back, there is still time for the Preston-born player to push forward his case for the next World Cup.
And, judging by his rocksolid performance in last week’s 24-0 Challenge Cup win over Cardiff Blues, Haley, still only 23, appears to be getting back on track.
“Any English player wants to play for England and that’s always at the back of your mind but, at the moment, I need to make sure my Sale performances are more consistent and of a better quality. That will keep me in the hunt as well as keeping the No.15 jersey at Sale,” he told The Rugby Paper.
“I dislocated my shoulder in the second match of that Saxons tour, and that kept me out for a while. Then I probably came back a little too early and it took me quite a few games last season just to get back up to speed running-wise.”
Haley added: “The competition I have here prevents me from resting on my laurels and keeps pushing me to be the best player I can be.
“I just want to keep my head down and keep improving, doing the nuts and bolts of playing 15 and, when I get a couple of opportunities, get over that line and score some tries.”
Last Saturday, Haley defied the miserable conditions at the AJ Bell Stadium to help Sale keep their first clean sheet in any competition since they beat Petrarca 54-0 in January 2011.
“When you live in Manchester you get used to the rain and you know that, every now and then, you’re going to play in awful conditions, which was certainly the case last weekend,” he said.
“In games like that you know that there isn’t going to be much running rugby and if any high balls do go up, you’ve got to take them and make sure the back field is all clean.
“We said in the team meeting on Tuesday that you don’t often nil teams in any competition, so it was a great feat from the boys. “AJ MacGinty, below, and Will Cliff led the way brilliantly from half-back. They made sure we played in the right positions and didn’t mess around in our own half. “We were quite ruthless in that respect which we needed to be in those conditions.”
Sale’s first European win of the season gives them an outside chance of qualifying for the knockout stages.
“We were quite disappointed with the two previous performances, drawing against Toulouse, which was a game we felt we should have won, and then throwing the game away right at the end away to Lyon.
“We owed it to ourselves to put in a good performance against Cardiff and we now need to back that up at their place.”