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Tuilagi debuts at No13 as Sale name team to face Harlequins
By Online Editors
New signings Manu Tuilagi and Sam Hill will make their Sale Sharks debuts when the 2019/20 Gallagher Premiership season resumes at Harlequins on Friday following a 159-layoff due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Boss Steve Diamond has named his new midfield arrivals from Leicester and Exeter respectively in the starting line up alongside World Cup winner Lood de Jager, who will make his full club debut at the Stoop having made his debut off the bench in the March win over London Irish.
Coenie Oosthuizen, Akker van der Merwe and Will-Griff John make up a heavyweight Sharks front row for the trip to London, with an all-South African combination of Jean-Luc du Preez and de Jager providing power and experience behind them.
Club captain Jono Ross resumes his usual position at blindside flanker and is joined in a powerful back row by internationals Tom Curry and Daniel du Preez.
World Cup winner Faf de Klerk makes his first start for the club since January after recovering from a knee strain and will form a familiar partnership with Rob du Preez.
Hill and Tuilagi will form the midfield and they have an experienced back three of Byron McGuigan, Marland Yarde and Simon Hammersley outside them.
Sharks boss Diamond said: “It’s fantastic to finally be back into the Premiership. We have trained for a long time now and everyone at the club is champing at the bit to get the season started again.
"I’m sure it will be a great occasion on Friday as we get things underway against Quins, Paul (Gustard, Harlequins' boss) has a full squad to select from this time around, which is a stark contrast to when they visited us in January, so we will have to be firing on all cylinders to have a chance of pulling off a result away from home.”
SALE SHARKS (v Harlequins, Friday)
15. Simon Hammersley, 14. Byron McGuigan, 13. Manu Tuilagi, 12. Sam Hill, 11. Marland Yarde, 10. Rob du Preez, 9. Faf de Klerk; 1. Coenie Oosthuizen, 2. Akker van der Merwe, 3. Will-Griff John, 4. Jean-Luc du Preez, 5. Lood de Jager, 6. Jono Ross (capt) 7. Tom Curry, 8. Daniel du Preez.
Replacements
16. Curtis Langdon, 17. Ross Harrison, 18. Jake Cooper-Woolley, 19. James Phillips, 20. Ben Curry, 21. Will Cliff, 22. AJ MacGinty, 23. Denny Solomona.
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Latest Comments
Well said except Argentina is most certainly not an “emerging nation” as far as rugby is concerned. If you’re making global-social-political claim, then I’m out of my depth entirely.
Argentina by multiple leagues of magnitude played better than Ireland today. Striking away a try in the 2nd minute did not necessarily lead to Arg demise, but as we all know, rugby is such an emotional game that then to be down 12-0 over nothing is gut-wrenching, especially as it was effectively a 19 point swing. Argentina’s fight back throughout the rest of the match was laudable.
A howl of great sadness for a beautiful sport that has criminal administrators, feckless refs, foppish TMOs, idiotic tv pundits, et al. attempting to collectively suicide the whole thing. No fault of the players or coaches necessarily. We have a situation where punitive cards that detract away from the essence and loftiness of the game itself are celebrated to a degree that is pathologically purblind. Rugby has created for itself a fetish for punishment rather than simply allowing the game to be played. Shameful.
Go to commentsAbsolutely right, can’t expect nearly an all kiwi officiating team to know the rules properly 😉
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