Sanderson drinks it in and gets party started
ALEX SANDERSON told his exhausted Sale players to start the party after the Sharks reached the Premiership final for the first time since winning the title in 2006. The director of rugby could not contain his delight as he sipped from a can of lager following the match. He had seen his team beat defending champions leicester 21-13 at a bouncing AJ Bell Stadium. Sale will play Saracens in the final at Twickenham a week on Saturday.
‘We’ve got a big party after this — a huge social. I’ve got a hotel booked. We will have a good drink, responsibly of course,’ said Sanderson.
‘We had to wear a lot of bruises and we knew we would have to. I could see Jonny Hill dry-retching, he was that tired.
‘These are British lions players who ran their blood to water. I couldn’t be prouder of them. They drank deep from the well. We’ve worked really hard on resilience and a lot of that paid off.’
Sale were cheered on by a capacity crowd and scored tries in either half through wings Tom roebuck and Arron reed. George Ford, a Premiership winner with leicester last season, was man of the match. Ford suffered a serious achilles injury in last season’s final when the Tigers beat Saracens.
He had to wait until February to make his Sale debut but was at his best against his former club, kicking a conversion and three penalties, and controlling the game magnificently.
The only downside for Sale was a serious hamstring injury for captain Ben Curry, which is likely to rule him out of the final against Saracens and possibly the World Cup with england.
‘It’s a special group. They stuck to the task and George drove that well. He was a pocket of calm amid the chaos,’ said Sanderson. on Curry’s injury, former Saracens assistant coach Sanderson added: ‘It’s difficult to tell. The first 24 hours are crucial. He’s such a key player for us and a tough player, so he wouldn’t have gone off on a stretcher if he wasn’t badly injured. It’s a hamstring — I doubt he’ll make the final.’ leicester’s bid for back-to-back titles came up just short, but after a season in which they lost coaches Steve Borthwick and Kevin Sinfield to england, they did well to make the last four.
Interim head coach richard Wigglesworth, who is also heading to england this summer, lost fly-half Handre Pollard to a calf problem before kick-off. Wigglesworth said: ‘It was tight. You are going to miss Handre Pollard in any team but it’s not an excuse. We made the call this morning. He hadn’t trained for the last couple of days. The best team won today.’