Sale give a 2024/25 contract update on George Ford, Manu Tuilagi

Alex Sanderson has given his most optimistic indication yet that both George Ford and Manu Tuilagi will be playing for Sale next season. Out-half Ford signed a three-year deal to move to the Sharks from Leicester in the summer of 2022, but an option regarding the third season of that contract has resulted in him being linked to a potential switch to the Top 14.

Tuilagi, meanwhile, only agreed on a one-year extension with Sale to cover the current 2023/24 campaign, but Sanderson expects both England players to stay at the Manchester club next term.

“George’s negotiations are entirely down to him,” explained the head coach at Wednesday evening media briefing ahead of next Sunday’s Champions Cup opener at home to Stade Francais.

“There is a contract in place, it’s just a player option, and from what I hear he is very happy and agreed on terms, we have just got to make it official… That is what I am anticipating from what I have heard.

“That’s George. Last year was supposed to be Manu’s last year but with Jono Ross leaving and Coenie (Oosthuizen) going back (to South Africa), some money in the pot opened up. It was like, ‘Right, brilliant, we can keep you’.

“Then when he came back from the World Cup I was like, ‘Right, how are you feeling? You reckon you have got another year in you?’ I don’t know how we are going to do it still, but he is like, ‘Let’s get back on the field and go for another steak’, so we will chat over a glass of wine.

“I have an IMAX deal with the wingers over hat-tricks. I have got a similar deal that Manu just struck up today [Wednesday] around bottles of wine. I don’t know if it’s the right way to go about it but it is certainly motivating him around big hits and energy giving. If he can out-enthuse George Ford this weekend, I’m going to buy him a nice bottle of red. So watch this space.”

Having returned from England’s bronze medal World Cup campaign with a fractured hand, Tuilagi is fit and up for selection to face Stade at the AJ Bell this Sunday in what would be his first appearance for the club this season.

After having too many Test rugby campaigns ruined by injury, the 32-year-old enjoyed a rejuvenated run at France 2023 where he started six of his country’s seven matches and despite his recent broken hand, he is champing at the bit to be involved in a Champions Cup campaign where Gallagher Premiership leaders Sale also have matches versus Leinster, the Stormers and defending champions La Rochelle.

“He is more enthusiastic, more energetic than most of the 19- and 20-year-olds we have got knocking around the place,” reckoned Sanderson. “His want and desire to play and play again in this Champions Cup on the back of the World Cup, it’s quite astonishing really because it is always the drive that goes first.

“He is loving it. He is loving playing, he is loving being out there, he is probably loving the time he gets to spend away from his house – he has just got a newly-born baby so he gets a bit of a respite. He is bouncing around today, back-slapping and high-fiving, just looking like a guy 10 years younger than he is.”