Josh expecting more surprises
SALE STAR SAYS SEASON HAS MORE TWISTS AND TURNS
JOSH Strauss believes Sale’s season could still contain a few more twists and turns.
The Sharks travel to champions and league leaders Exeter Chiefs on Saturday and with two games of the regular Premiership season remaining, there are a host of possible permutations in determining who will finish in the top-six and top-four.
Still frustrated following a lastgasp 35-30 defeat away at Newcastle Falcons last time out, the Sharks will travel down to Devon lying in seventh place in the table.
But the league table is so congested, Steve Diamond’s side are only five points adrift of the fourthplaced Falcons.
“The Newcastle game was one which we should have won and if we had it would have made life a lot easier for us,” Strauss told the Sale Sharks website.
“The good thing however is that we are still in the race for the top-six and top-four. If we could win both of our remaining games and other results go our way anything is possible.
“As we have seen, there have been a lot of up-and-down results in the Premiership this season. Some weeks you see a team you’d bank on losing suddenly winning a game.
“For instance no-one would have predicted that Worcester would go to Exeter and win but they did. So it has been exciting and it has been good for us as we are still in the race.
“This weekend we know that we are the underdogs looking to provide an upset but, as we’ve seen, it has happened a lot already this season.”
A trip to Sandy Park to take on a Chiefs side on course to make it back-to-back title wins is about as tough an assignment as it gets in the Premiership.
But Strauss says the Sharks are also desperate to right the wrongs of that game at Newcastle where Sale went 25-0 down in a tough opening 25 minutes before staging an incredible fightback only to be denied with less than two minutes left on the clock.
“Especially given the result at Newcastle, this weekend’s game is a big one for us,” he added.
“Exeter are obviously a very good team and we know that it’s a huge challenge for us. It’s nice that we have had two weeks to prepare. It has allowed us a bit more time to work on our detail and nail our setplays down and the boys are certainly up for it.
“We were obviously very disappointed with what happened up at Newcastle. As well as we played, we didn’t do ourselves any favours in those first 25 minutes so what we are still working on is that bit of consistency.
“It’s a big one this week but the boys are up for it.”