Sharks told to up gears in pursuit of play-offs
SALE need to get up to speed and match the form of their play-off rivals if they are to back up on their Premiership Cup success with a first league title since 2006, according to DoR Steve Diamond.
The Sharks currently occupy the last of the four play-off places in the Premiership heading into the remainder of R21, sitting just below rampant Bath and Wasps. Bristol are hovering dangerously in fifth.
“Bath, Wasps and Bristol have stepped up a gear, and we don’t seem to have done,” Diamond admitted. “That’s the worry, that we haven’t hit the form they’ve hit even though we’ve won five of our last six games. So we’ve got a lot to do.”
With an away fixture against out-of-sorts Northampton on Tuesday, followed by a home clash against a Worcester team in a development, the Sharks have arguably the easiest run-in of the contenders.
Bath have only one game left, away to Saracens, while Wasps have Quins (a) and Exeter (h), and Bristol have Leicester (h) and London Irish (a).
With so much riding on the last two rounds, there will be close scrutiny of the team sheets to see if the integrity of the competition is being upheld.
So far, Diamond feels everything has been above board. “I think with Covid and the protocols that we have to go through, and the depth of squads we’ve had to get these games played, I think everybody has done remarkably well,” he said.
“I know we’ve played the least players in the sevenweek period; I think it’s 33. But it’s taken its toll. If we’d have had another 20 players like some of the clubs have got, I’d have used them.
“Some of the games have been slightly weakened with one or two 50-20 mismatches but generally they’ve been fair games.”
Ben Curry is ruled out for three weeks with the leg injury he picked up against Quins and is touch-and-go to be back for the final if Sale get that far. Otherwise Sharks do not have any new injury worries for the trip to Northampton.
“I’m going to move our team around a little bit, bring a couple of players in and go to win the game,” Diamond said. “Apart from Lood de Jager, it’ll be what I consider to be Sale’s strongest team.”