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'Getting a tighthead that can scrum and run is as rare as teddy bear s*** - and you can quote me on that!'
By Liam Heagney
Alex Sanderson has been signing the praises of some of his young front-rowers at Sale who could be selected for international duty this summer. England assistant Matt Proudfoot visited Sharks training in the week of their recent Heineken Champions quarter-final versus La Rochelle.
It was believed that loosehead Bevan Rodd, tighthead James Harper and hooker Ewan Ashman were all on the radar for this summer's England programme which features an A game versus Scotland at Leicester, followed by Twickenham Test matches against USA and Canada, but it is thought that Ashman will likely stick with the Scots for whom he was capped at U20s level.
Rodd is a 20-year-old Scottish-born loosehead who has started in eleven of his 16 Premiership appearances this season having had a September 2020 league debut off the bench against Saracens. Ashman is a 21-year-old Canadian-born hooker who has started one of his seven Premiership appearances this season having made a league debut off the bench against Leicester last September.
Meanwhile, Harper is a 20-year-old English-born tighthead who has made four recent league appearances off the bench. That youthful Sale front-rower complexion is added to by Curtis Langdon, a 23-year-old English-born hooker who has started in six of his 17 league appearances this season having first appeared off the bench in September 2018.
Asked about the new Sale star front-rowers and how far they might go in their careers, Sanderson said at his weekly media briefing ahead of Friday's visit by league leaders Bristol: "They have all shown that they can mix it in big boys rugby and that is a rare thing because front-rowers mature a little bit later, generally speaking. It's all like kind of mid to late 20s but these guys are 20 years old, 21 years old. All of them.
"You add Curtin Langdon to the mix, he's like 23, 24, so we have got quite a few. It's really exciting because tightheads are the highest-paid players in rugby squads right now. Getting a tighthead that can scrum and run is as rare as teddy bear s*** and you can quote me on that!
"We have got a young tighthead, a young loosehead and a young hooker, all of whom could play international rugby in the next four or five years, if not sooner. The future is really bright."
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Latest Comments
I guess the other option would be to start ALB, he's looked good in the 12 so far when he starts and sets up those outside him. But that would mean putting the vice captain on the bench, which is unlikely. Another option would be to drop Reiko to the bench and play Proctor, though he's gone home so that's not going to happen either.
Both of those players just offer more of the soft distribution skills good centres learn from playing their careers there. Unfortunately that's what's lacking with the current combo.
Go to commentsWhatever let's see if this load of waffle is still valid in 2 years time. ABs will rise we have a lot of new talent coming through. The NPC was the highest standard for years. The game is changing to suit the fast pace we like to play. We get to play the Springboks more, including the franchises, which will make us better! Overall I am optimistic. I will add having watched the England game multiple times we made most of the play. England are an awesome physical team, but you can expect the All Blacks to get better and better at executing the chances. It could easily have been 5 tries to one instead of 3 to 1.
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