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Saracens back Olly Hartley against league leaders Sale after impressing in Europe
By Josh Raisey
Saracens have handed 21-year-old centre Olly Hartley his first Gallagher Premiership start since round one after a two-try display against Connacht on Saturday in the Investec Champions Cup.
After coming on from the bench in Saracens' loss to the Bulls in Pretoria in round one, Hartley replaced Elliot Daly to partner Nick Tompkins in the midfield last weekend at the StoneX Stadium, scoring twice in the 55-36 victory. Director of rugby Mark McCall has gone for the same partnership for their trip to take on league leaders Sale Sharks tomorrow in a repeat of last season's final.
“Last weekend was a massive step forward so we want to improve on that performance," the former Wasps centre said.
"This game is a big test but we’re looking at it as another opportunity to get better.
"The experience really helps me. I can do my job and focus on that with so many good players around me who can give me great confidence."
After lining up against Bundee Aki, arguably the form centre in the world, last week, Hartley will be taking on Manu Tuilagi at the AJ Bell Stadium, so the challenges are coming thick and fast. Then again, at 6' 4", Hartley can certainly make his presence felt in the middle of the field as well.
Sale Sharks XV:
15. Joe Carpenter , 14. Tom Roebuck, 13. Rob du Preez, 12. Manu Tuilagi, 11. Arron Reed, 10. George Ford, 9. Gus Warr 1. Ross Harrison, 2. Agustin Creevy, 3. Nick Schonert, 4. Cobus Wiese 5. Jonny Hill, 6. Ernst van Rhyn, 7. Ben Curry ©, 8. Jean-Luc du Preez
Replacements: 16. Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17. Tumy Onasanya, 18. Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 19. Josh Beaumont, 20. Sam Dugdale, 21. Nye Thomas, 22. Sam James, 23. Sam Bedlow
Saracens XV:
15 Alex Goode, 14 Lucio Cinti, 13 Nick Tompkins, 12 Olly Hartley, 11 Sean Maitland, 10 Owen Farrell (c), 9 Ivan van Zyl, 1 Mako Vunipola, 2 Jamie George, 3 Alec Clarey, 4 Maro Itoje, 5 Theo McFarland, 6 Juan Martin Gonzalez, 7 Andy Christie, 8 Billy Vunipola
Replacements: 16 Theo Dan, 17 Tom West, 18 Logovi’i Mulipola, 19 Hugh Tizard, 20 Toby Knight, 21 Gareth Simpson, 22 Manu Vunipola, 23 Tom Parton
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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