'You always have an interest, particularly ones like Denny'

Sale boss Alex Sanderson will keep a Saturday morning eye on how the club’s ex-winger Denny Solomona will fare with the Highlanders in the quarter-finals of the Super Rugby Pacific away to the Blues at Eden Park. The former England pick made an April 1 debut at the Crusaders and having been named at 23rd man for the knockout game in Auckland, he is poised for a sixth appearance for his new team following his surprise exit from Manchester last November.

Solomona quit the Gallagher Premiership club without having a team lined up to join in New Zealand but having made the trip home he was eventually picked up by the Dunedin-based franchise and has made good his gamble of leaving Sale unexpectedly.

”Of course, I take an interest,” said Sale boss Sanderson to RugbyPass when asked about the progress of Solomona on the other side of the world. “By and large four and five people leave clubs every year, so you get used to not the revolving door but certainly the flow of players coming in and coming out.

“But you always have an interest, particularly ones like Denny which was a bit of a surprise but we thought it was the right thing for him to go on and get what he wants. It [him doing well at the Highlanders] fortifies your decision and the conversations that you had.

“I was even texting Will Skelton on Saturday night, I haven’t coached him for years,” he added about another old player who last weekend was celebrating Heineken Champions Cup success with La Rochelle.

The pair worked together at Saracens and shared in European success in 2019 before both went their separate ways, Skelton to France to play and Sanderson to Manchester to take charge at Sale after years of assistant coaching. “Chuffed to bits with him. The last time we went to La Rochelle he turned up with a couple of bottles of wine with his missus so that is the best thing about the job for me, the relationships that keep on going after your time spent with the lads.”

It was early December when Sanderson first spoke to RugbyPass about his mixed feelings that Solomona had exited just months after what the director of rugby described as one of his proudest moments since becoming Sale boss in January 2021.

Sanderson and his staff had worked hard to get Solomona back into the first-team mix following his latest issues with mental health, a comeback desire that was fulfilled in September when the 28-year-old came off the bench at London Irish to make his first appearance since February. The coach described it as one of his proudest moments at the Sharks.

However, November discussions about a contract extension quickly ended with Solomona being released early from his existing deal in order to return home to New Zealand, a turn of events that took Sale boss by surprise as Solomona had gone on to make six Sale appearances following his September return to the team. 

“I’m happy for him in that I think this could be what he needs for his overall happiness,” said Sanderson at the time. “We tried everything we could but he probably wasn’t getting it here and I have always maintained that you need to be at least content in all parts of your life to get the best out of you on the field. The best players are those that have everything sorted and flowing. Denny didn’t have those things.

“Look, it’s a failure potentially on my part but I tried, we tried with professionals, everything we could to get him in that right spot and try as we might, it was still too far a reach for him. I thought we were there and we were in parts, but it was a bit of a struggle. 

“All of that sounds negative but it is not negative if he has gone to a better place and he and his family are happy. That is the way I can justify my efforts and not feel like I let him down. I don’t think I have let him down. We have helped him get to a place where he was miles better than he was when I turned up.” 

Solomona originally joined Sale from rugby league’s Castleford in 2016 and his Premiership Cup start at Leicester on November 13 was his final match for the club as it was announced 13 days later that the five-cap England winger was heading home to New Zealand for personal reasons and would continue his playing career there.