Alex Sanderson: 'Judge us on competitiveness, great resilience'

Alex Sanderson was halfway through a creamy pint of the black stuff when he stepped outside a loud music marquee at the RDS to give his hot take to RugbyPass on a Saturday night tale of two halves for Sale in Dublin.

The Sharks were bitingly competitive in an opening period that they led 13-3 for a stretch; then came the second wave where they were beached by Leinster, falling 37-13 behind before rallying with two converted tries in the closing 90 seconds to leave just 10 points the margin.

This reduced full-time gap enabled the director of rugby to talk with the bounce of someone satisfied that his glass was half full, which it literally was when he placed it on some sort of wiring box at the back of the aged main stand near where the beery post-match Leinster fans party was in full swing in the paddock ring and an old shed.

You would have got long odds pre-game on the notion of Sale threatening a surprise against an Irish outfit that had opened its Champions Cup campaign last weekend with a superb win at La Rochelle and were unbeaten in the URC since the opening round in October.

The Gallagher Premiership leaders had gambled in making 11 changes to the XV that defeated Stade Francais six days earlier at home, giving the talisman likes of George Ford and Manu Tuilagi an evening off with a view to them being hale and hearty for next Friday’s arrival of Saracens at the AJ Bell.

However, rather than this selection gambit being the prompt for an immediate away day capitulation, Sanderson’s much rejigged Sale outfit instead had the chutzpah to deservedly lead Leinster for a full 36 minutes – initially for 11 and then a chunkier 25 – and it wasn’t until a brutal five-minute spell either side of the hour mark, during which arrears of just 13-16 widened to 13-30, that the ambush was put firmly beyond their grasp.

“Proud of how they went at Leinster despite the doubters,” enthused Sanderson, his Guinness going down swimmingly while reflecting on a contest that bristled and hung in the balance until a needless penalty concession from second-half sub Jonny Hill for acting the maggot on the prone Josh van der Flier swung possession and territory Leinster’s way at a crucial stage after the hosts had taken the lead for the first time with a Jamison Gibson-Park try following a missed Tom Roebuck tackle.

“We really attacked them, I thought we rattled them in that first half. We said to them at half-time it was probably only us in here who thought that could happen. We gave ourselves a five-minute focus for the second half and we conceded that try, let them in at that point.

“We gave them too much possession in the second half, too much territory. A 1,000-cap international side, which they are, they are going to score points. We came back again (at the end), which shows the resilience of the group. Although a lot of professional sport is about winning and losing, it does feel was can take an edge, a momentum from that into the Premiership and Saracens next week.”

In no way was Sanderson regretful about not going in fully locked and loaded in Dublin. “We could have done something special tonight with that group. The kick in front of the sticks, we went to the corner, got it turned over. That brings it within seven, and held up over the line on a driving maul – then the score is even, and these are just opportunities that we missed, not the ones that we gave to Leinster.

“I would say in hindsight we could have done it with that group. Now we are going back into the Premiership with a fresh group. We managed to rest everyone in the group over the last two weeks and took some stick this week, but over the last two weeks, we have managed to rejuvenate a squad that was hanging in there after eight games in the Premiership, so in the bigger picture I’m quite happy where we are at this point of time.

“We were dominated in a lot of areas. Certainly, the momentum in that second half went away from us. But if you were to judge us on competitiveness, great resilience, just not giving an inch in the game, these are intangible things and I think we went toe to toe with a 1,000-cap side so for that, I am very grateful.

“The rest we can build, the rest we can coach. Certainly, in terms of experience, there is a lot of growth in that side, a bit more growth than what they [Leinster] have got in theirs so I’m encouraged by that as well.”

The video nasty review for Sale on Monday morning, though, will be their penalty-leaking scrum, a nightmare of a first half for James Harper that culminated in his sin-binning near the interval. It was a numerical advantage that Leinster swiftly took advantage of to go in at the break trailing by just two points instead of a more worrying seven.

“The scrum was an important factor, it was a momentum swinger really,” admitted Sanderson. "Asher (Opoku-Fordjour) came on and just sorted that out brilliantly as he does as a 19-year-old. It’s certainly not to the standards where we were the last couple of weeks.

“We will have a look at that. In games like that, every little mistake is preyed upon and the cost is greater than in your average Premiership game. Our set-piece is something we will have to get up to scratch again.”