'Told you he is a bit strange': The making of Bevan Rodd 2:0

Alex Sanderson has explained the changes that resulted in Bevan Rodd starting the new Gallagher Premiership season as player of the match in last Sunday’s Sale win over Harlequins. There were numerous complaints about the lack of entertainment produced in the low-scoring encounter which the try-less Sharks won 12-11 with a late George Ford penalty.

However, the upside was that it allowed a prop such as Rodd to stand out from the muddle and demonstrate his ability in the low frills exchanges. It’s been a frustrating time lately for the Test-level loosehead. He was only a bit-part player at last year’s Rugby World Cup while the need for a January toe operation sidelined him until the back-end of last season.

Rodd recovered in time to help Sale reach the Premiership semi-finals but a frustrating England tour – where rookie Fin Baxter vaulted him in the selection pecking order to take the No1 jersey in New Zealand from the injured Joe Marler – left the 24-year-old eager to make a dominant impression from the start in 2024/25.

The opposition’s loosehead last weekend was none other than his new Test rival Baxter and Sanderson was pleased with how his player rose to the challenge. Asked by RugbyPass ahead of this Saturday’s visit to Saracens what he is expecting from the front-rower, who in February penned a three-year contract extension through to 2027, the director of rugby beamed: “Let’s call him the hot Rodd of props.

“He came off tour and of course he was disappointed. He got one cap, he might have got another game but he clearly got overtaken by Finn Baxter. so there was a bit of personal battle there last weekend.

“You be the judge but he got man of the match. It felt like he had a point to prove, and he will continue to prove his points throughout the season. He is a different character in a good way. I haven’t figured him out. He is still a closed book to me but I am enjoying the process of him figuring himself out.

“When you get him that motivated, like you saw last weekend, he is a special player to have in your side. Not only because he can scrum and scrum well as you saw against an international tighthead (Titi Lamositele), who was 20-stone plus I might add, just his movement around the park, his mobility, he is like a back-rower.

“He fills in holes in defence, chasing back on line breaks. He is a phenomenal player. The fact he looks 34 and he is only 24 goes against him sometimes. He has got a long, long road ahead of him.

“I’m really happy that he has chosen the next three years to be here. We talk about working together long term and that is why I do the job – that is exactly why I do it, so I can work with people like Bevan and enjoy myself while doing it.”

When Rodd initially exploded on the first team scene in Manchester, he came with a social animal reputation. However, he has now altered his modus operandi in the hope of securing more involvement with England, even sleeping daily in an altitude tent at home to aid his recovery and help injury rehabilitation to ensure he is better prepared for the unrelenting rigours of professional rugby.

That tent was needed in recent days as it emerged that Rodd has picked up another (unspecified) injury and isn't in the Sharks team for their round two trip to London. “He has the love of the lads as he was a social animal, very much so,” said Sanderson, comparing the youthful Rodd with the 2:0 version that he now works with.

“He was the heartbeat of when the boys went out and then he realised in doing that he is not going to get where he wants to go. So he stopped going out, picks his moments when he does, but he has bought himself a hyperbaric tent, sleeps in that two hours a day. He sleeps in a tent in his house; I told you he is a bit strange.”

Rodd isn’t the only one at Sale to have cottoned onto the use of an altitude tent, as Ross Harrison and Raffi Quirke have both apparently followed suit. “This is the difference in him. From being not a class clown but an energy giver, you can hear him down the corridor or when he comes into the meetings and stuff, last year he wanted to change that opinion, the players’ opinion of him.

“He knew that is what he needed to do to get international honours, so we talked a lot about his influence on the group and how he can be an energy giver maybe off the field but once he crosses what we call the blue – most people say the whitewash – then his application, his mental shift to training is one that other people want to follow.

“So he is maturing, as the group are. This is a group that two years ago the bulk of the 23 were 22 year olds. Now they are 24, 25 and are finding themselves as men which is really rewarding.”