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Sale keep the faith but La Rochelle make six changes for Saturday's quarter-final
By Sam Smith
Sale boss Alex Sanderson has given the entire starting XV that demolished Scarlets last Sunday in Wales in the Heineken Champions Cup round of 16 a vote of confidence by announcing an unchanged team for this Saturday's quarter-final in France versus La Rochelle.
The Sharks have been disadvantaged by having just a six-day turnaround in between games compared to the eight days afforded to La Rochelle following their win at Gloucester, but Sanderson has placed his faith in his players finding the necessary gas to put it up to their French hosts who have made six changes.
Those alterations include a recall at full-back for France No15 Brice Dulin while the entire front row of Reda Wardi, Pierre Bourgarit and Uini Atonio is promoted from the bench as is livewire Test back row Gregory Alldritt and centre Geoffrey Doumayrou.
Saturday will only be a second-ever Champions Cup quarter-final appearance for Sale, this latest one coming 15 years after they lost 11-6 to beaten 2006 finalists Biarritz in San Sebastian.
Quizzed on the limited Sale preparation time this week compared to La Rochelle, Sanderson said: "We prepped well for a few weeks to be able to see it through for this weekend. That is just the necessity and the pragmatism of the week that we have got… we’re in a cup final and I can’t wait.”
LA ROCHELLE: 15. Brice Dulin; 14. Dillyn Leyds, 13. Geoffrey Doumayrou, 12. Levani Botia, 11. Raymond Rhule; 10. Ihaia West, 9. Tawera Kerr Barlow; 1. Reda Wardi, 2. Pierre Bourgarit, 3. Uini Atonio, 4. Romain Sazy (capt), 5. Will Skelton, 6. Gregory Alldritt, 7. Kevin Gourdon, 8. Victor Vito. Reps: 16. Facundo Bosch, 17. Dany Priso, 18. Arthur Joly, 19. Thomas Lavault, 20. Wiaan Liebenberg, 21. Thomas Berjon, 22. Jules Plisson, 23. Pierre Aguillon.
SALE: 15. Simon Hammersley; 14. Byron McGuigan, 13. Sam James, 12. Rohan Janse van Rensburg, 11. Marland Yarde; 10. AJ MacGinty, 9. Faf de Klerk; 1. Bevan Rodd, 2. Akker van der Merwe, 3. Willgriff John, 4. Jacobus Wiese, 5. Josh Beaumont (capt), 6. Jean-Luc du Preez, 7. Tom Curry, 8. Dan du Preez. Reps: 16. Curtis Langdon, 17. Ross Harrison, 18. Coenie Oosthuizen, 19. J Phillips, 20. Cameron Neild, 21. Raphael Quirke, 22. Robert du Preez, 23. Luke James.
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Latest Comments
"Right, so even if they were the 4 worst teams in Champions Cup, you'd still have them back by default?"
I think (i) this would literally never happen, (ii) it technically couldn't quite happen, given at least 1 team would qualify via the challenge cup, so if the actual worst team in the CC qualified it would have to be because they did really well after being knocked down to the challenge cup.
But the 13th-15th teams could qualify and to be fair I didn't think about this as a possibility. I don't think a team should be able to qualify via the Champions Cup if they finish last in their group.
Overall though I like my idea best because my thinking is, each league should get a few qualification spots, and then the rest of the spots should go to the next best teams who have proven an ability to be competitive in the champions cup. The elite French clubs generally make up the bulk of the semi-final spots, but that doesn't (necessarily) mean that the 5th-8th best French clubs would be competitive in a slimmed down champions cup. The CC is always going to be really great competition from the semis onwards, but the issue is that there are some pretty poor showings in the earlier rounds. Reducing the number of teams would help a little bit, but we could improve things further by (i) ensuring that the on-paper "worst" teams in the competition have a track record of performing well in the CC, and (ii) by incentivising teams to prioritise the competition. Teams that have a chance to win the whole thing will always be incentivised to do that, but my system would incentivise teams with no chance of making the final to at least try to win a few group stage matches.
"I'm afraid to say"
Its christmas time; there's no need to be afraid!
Go to commentsYou are a very horrible man Ojohn. Brain injury perhaps?
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