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'Playing a fully-loaded international match needs building up to'
By Paul Smith
Sale director of rugby Alex Sanderson warned that England must handle prized asset Manu Tuilagi's return with care after he played the final 30 minutes of his club's Gallagher Premiership win over Harlequins.
The powerhouse centre returned to the fray alongside South African World Cup winner Faf De Klerk who has also endured a long injury absence.
Tuilagi's last action came during England's Autumn Series campaign and with the Six Nations dominating the next six weeks, his club boss has cautioned against him being thrown straight back into international rugby.
“Manu came through well but obviously playing in a fully-loaded international match from the start needs building up to," he said.
“Manu is getting older and listening to his body more now so hopefully he will be able to handle what lies ahead.”
Sanderson was delighted that Sharks had got the monkey off their back with their first away win in the Gallagher Premiership since beating Bath in May with a convincing 36-14 win over the reigning champions Harlequins at the Stoop.
Tom Roebuck and Robert Du Preez both scored two tries, Ewan Ashman Sale’s other scorer, with AJ MacGinty adding a penalty and four conversions.
Hugh Tizard and Tommy Allan scored Quins’ tries, with Allan converting both.
He said: “If you come down here and don’t believe in yourselves, you end up being a bit part as has happened many times in the past.
“We came down here with the intention of imposing our style of play more like a horror show than the Harlem Globetrotters.
“We’ve now won back-to-back games in the competition as we’ve now got a consistent squad and are finding a rich vein of form.
“They had a few key players missing whereas we had most of our stars back in our line-up. We are still aiming for the play-offs as I believe we are that good and should be there.”
Harlequins head coach Tabai Matson accepted his side were convincingly beaten.
He said: “They were predictably physical and we thought we had a plan in place but we were second best in all facets of the game.
“We give two early tries with piggy-backs up the field by making a number of uncharacteristic errors.
“You can’t give them a 20-point start with the power that they had coming from their bench.
“The great thing about this competition is that there is no respite and we will have to get over this result in time for Saracens next week but it was a tough lesson for us.”
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Latest Comments
Ten years ago we were discussing how
Australia had made the Giteu Law and how we didn’t have to to do anything like that because NZ produced more talent than Australia.
The current model only works if you are constantly producing players good enough to take over when players leave.
New Zealand will struggle to do this as time goes on because rugby is dying here at the grass roots level.
Rugby league, football, basketball are where young kids are choosing to go more and more.
Even combat sports such as jiu jitsu are rapidly gaining in popularity all the time.
Picking players from overseas will give us a sugar hit of success for a wee while…. But the crash
afterward could be Wales-like.
Go to commentsYou see BS when you white Saffers (and you're white drop your ruse) make xenophobic comments, they are just flagging themselves as the type of white South African who would have been a defender of your despicable State back in the day. You are just too stupid too see it. When you say these things in front of non whites from your own country they will think you're just the type of Kant who would have them in chains a few decades ago. And you are that Kant.
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