British and Irish Lions lock Jonny Hill returns to the Sharks XV as Alex Sanderson makes just one change to his team to face Michael Cheika’s Leicester Tigers in a top of the table clash on Friday night (KO 7.45, LIVE on TNT Sports and BBC Radio Manchester).
The Sharks Director of Rugby is expecting a tough challenge at Mattioli Woods Welford Road against an in-form Tigers team, who sit one place above Sale in the Gallagher Premiership table.
And he says that if his side has aspirations of a top-two finish and a home semi-final, Friday’s game is a must win.
Alex said: “They all feel big but the biggest one is the next one. Any team with aspirations of a home semi, other than Bath, has to win this weekend. We’re one of those teams.
“Leicester have a really strong set-piece and a great defence and their efficiency when they get down into the opposition’s 22 is what’s blown some of the scoreboards out.
“They’re aggressive at the breakdown and we know that if we don’t make all our shots count, we could find ourselves on a hiding to nothing.
“We’ve found some form and I feel like we’re playing better rugby than this time last year, but we don’t feel like we’ve made it because we want to continue to get better.
“Our set-piece against Toulouse was as good as it can be, I was really happy with our defence against Saracens and our attack against Quins was really good, but if we want to get a home semi and maybe win something, we need to bring it together and that’s what we’re striving for.”
It’s same again for Alex in the front-row with hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie starting between fellow England front-row stars Bevan Rodd and Asher Opoku-Fordjour.
Hill returns to partner Ben Bamber in the second-row while flankers Ernst van Rhyn and Tom Curry team up once again with Jean-Luc du Preez at number 8.
The backs are unchanged with Gus Warr and George Ford combining once again at half-back and Rekeiti Ma’asi-White and ever-present skipper Rob du Preez outside them in the centres.
In the back three, Scotland international Arron Reed starts again on the left wing with Tom Roebuck on the right. Joe Carpenter starts again at 15.
Si McIntyre, Wales prop WillGriff John and hooker Tadgh McElroy are the front-row replacements with Hyron Andrews, Ben Curry and Dan du Preez the other forwards on the bench.
England scrum-half Raffi Quirke and Tom O’Flaherty are the backs replacements.
Sale Sharks Starting XV:
15. Joe Carpenter, 14. Tom Roebuck, 13. Rob du Preez (c), 12. Rekeiti Ma’asi-White, 11. Arron Reed, 10. George Ford 9. Gus Warr, 1. Bevan Rodd, 2. Luke Cowan-Dickie, 3. Asher Opoku-Fordjour 4. Ben Bamber, 5. Jonny Hill, 6. Ernst van Rhyn, 7. Tom Curry, 8. JL du Preez.
Replacements:
16. Tadgh McElroy, 17. Si McIntyre, 18. WillGriff John, 19. Hyron Andrews, 20. Ben Curry, 21. Dan du Preez, 22. Raffi Quirke, 23. Tom O’Flaherty.
Officials:
Referee: Matthew Carley
Assistant referee 1: Joe James
Assistant referee 2: Wayne Falla
TMO: Dean Richards
Match stats:
Leicester Tigers
- Adam Radwan scored his first Premiership hat-trick against Quins in Round 15 and has now scored tries in four of his first five league matches for the Tigers.
- Julian Montoya threw into 15 lineouts in the last round and won 14 (1st). This season, he has thrown in 131 lineouts and won 121, a 92.4% success rate (4th).
- Ollie Hassell-Collins scored two tries in Round 15 to take him to ten overall, the joint-most scored so far this season.
Sale Sharks
- Ernst Van Rhyn and Ben Bamber completed 18 tackles in Round 15 – the joint-most. Reketi Maasi-White led the league in the last round with four dominant tackles.
- Joe Carpenter carried for 79 metres versus Saracens. In doing so, he became the first player this season to carry over 1,000 metres (1,001 metres).
