Tom Curry, Raffi Quirke and Nathan Jibulu return to the Sharks side and Seb Kelly keeps his place in the back row as Alex Sanderson makes three changes to his XV for the visit of Bristol Bears (live on HBO, KO 3.15pm).
After a try-scoring performance last time out, Tom Roebuck starts at outside centre once again. Luke James (illness) and Alex Wills (eye) return to take their places on the bench.
Hooker Jibulu starts for the first time in six weeks following a ban and he’ll have Asher Opoku-Fordjour and James Harper for company in the front row.
Skipper Ernst van Rhyn and Ben Bamber start again in the second row. The pair have started every single Gallagher Prem game this season.
In the back-row, Sam Dugdale starts at blindside flanker with Kelly at openside and Curry, who has recovered from a head injury sustained during England camp, at number 8.
Quirke starts at scrum-half with George Ford at fly-half and outside them, Rekeiti Ma’asi-White is joined in the centres by Roebuck.
Joe Carpenter continues at full-back and he’ll have Scotland winger Reed and Tom O’Flaherty either side of him on the wings.
On the bench, Academy hooker Alfie Longstaff is joined by Academy props Patreece Bell and Ralph McEachran. Hyron Andrews and Reuben Logan are the other forwards named as replacements as Alex opts for a 5-3 split.
Gus Warr, Luke James and Wills make up the rest of the bench.
Starting XV:
15. Joe Carpenter, 14. Tom O’Flaherty, 13. Tom Roebuck, 12. Rekeiti Ma’asi-White, 11Arron Reed, 10. George Ford, 9. Raffi Quirke; 1. Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 2. Nathan Jibulu, 3. James Harper, 4. Ernst van Rhyn ©, 5. Ben Bamber, 6. Sam Dugdale, 7. Seb Kelly, 8. Tom Curry.
Replacements:
16. Alfie Longstaff, 17. Ralph McEachran, 18. Patreece Bell, 19. Hyron Andrews, 20. Reuben Logan, 21. Gus Warr, 22. Luke James, 23. Alex Wills.
Match stats:
Sale Sharks
• Sale Sharks achieved perfect goal-kicking accuracy in the latest round (100%) and maintain the highest season percentage (79.5%).
• Joe Carpenter led all players with 110 metres made in the latest round and ranks 2nd in the Prem with 21 offloads this season.
• George Ford was perfect off the tee in the latest round with six successful goals from six attempts (100% success rate), both ranking 1st.
• Ben Bamber leads the Prem with 238 successful tackles this season and has made 308 attacking ruck entries (9th in league).
Bristol Bears
• Bristol Bears led the latest round with 39 defenders beaten and maintained the highest post-contact metres per carry (1.1).
• Kalaveti Ravouvou has scored 12 tries this season (3rd in Prem) while generating a league-leading 1,129 metres with ball in hand.
• Fitz Harding ranks 2nd in the Prem for total successful tackles (236) and leads the league for total turnovers won (20).
• Bristol Bears achieved perfect lineout success in the latest round (100%, 1st) and lead the Prem in mauling statistics with eight maul tries scored and 17 maul penalties won.
