Sale DoR Alex Sanderson previews Sharks’ opening fixture of the 2025/26 Gallagher Prem season!

Sale DoR Alex Sanderson previews Sharks’ opening fixture of the 2025/26 Gallagher Prem season!

Thursday is a baby Friday, isn’t it? That’s what they call it nowadays. It’s the start of the weekend for generation zeds. So hopefully we’ll get a few few new fans down. Yeah, but you are worryingly available for B and Q and Tesco for the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So it has its drawbacks. Yeah, there is that. We’re actually we’re going into town on Friday. We get we’re taking them into Europe’s largest sauna um on Friday in Manchester. I know you may laugh, but recovery is all important for mental resilience. So, we thought with it being the internationals first game, those who were picked that they want to um the best thing we can do is get them in for a bit of hot and cold, get them in for a bit treatment, get the review done, and then they can get themselves off to BNQ on Saturday and Sunday, but we’ve saved them. We’ve saved them on Friday, they’re back in with us the day after. And how have you changed the week because it’s so much shorter? Oh yeah, it’s not really. Um the the the the day of the week is arbitrary in terms of preparation for games. Games u takes priority when that game day. So you just work back from game day minus 7 and you try and keep your training cycle as consistent as you can. So we’ve basically got training jet lag I guess you could call it. We because we didn’t have a game last week. We came in Saturday, Sunday. We had Monday off and we trained today and we have tomorrow off and play Friday. And that’s how a Saturday, Saturday cycle would work. So we just work back from Thursday as it were a Saturday if that makes sense. And then we’ll get them in on Friday, Saturday, Sunday off, and then we’re back into a normal cycle again. So for us it’s been pretty easy for teams that have had to play two games or at least a game over the weekend. Slightly more complex. They’ve had to register full heart besides uh and Bath didn’t end up playing in the Prem Cup either. They put a second team out there, didn’t they, and played Worcester. So other teams have gone different ways about it. We’ve had a by week. And in terms of planning on your big board about who comes in and how early and who’s later than others, what are you looking at for the first then first match up then? Well, all the internationals are Yeah, they’re all available. Internationals, aren’t they? They’re all available to play. Uh Lions players aren’t and Tom Curry, as you know, a bit later in his return to play. So, we’ll we’ll back our internationals. um them that have had enough enough miles under the belts because there’s a few that you know have had little niggles and stuff like that. But all those that have trained hard and trained well, we’ll we’ll back them to perform well. And besides Tom, is there anybody who hasn’t been able to train fully? Yeah, there’s a few there’s a few over the last so they had five weeks off, came back in five weeks. You know, Karps initially had a bit of an Achilles. Uh Bev was still recovering from a clean out in his knee. Um Ben Curry, you know, felt his hamstring a little bit. Um George has been as robust as he always is. Uh Gus is made of rubber, so his bendy bones, he hasn’t had a niggle at all. Book’s been good. Read’s been good. So there’s a few out of that larger group that have had a few a few things to contend with over the last five weeks. Um but you know more recently they’ve all looked pretty sharp which is you know which is where you want to get to isn’t it? You want you want them to feel ready. You want them to feel ready um and up for selection at the first game of the season. I feel we’ve got there for the most part. And you you chosen Ernie. Uh he is like previous southern hemisphere of players in in that back row for sailors a ridiculous engine and a ridiculous love of tackling. Have you spoken to him about the amount of work he does in terms of ensuring he lasts the whole season because he does put his body on the line all the time? Yeah, I I haven’t spoken to him about um pulling back on the reigns any. No, I love that aspect about them. And I think, you know, your captain’s got to exemplify not the strategic capabilities of the group, but certainly the values that underpin what you’re about as a team. And Ernie Ernie does that, doesn’t he? Boundless energy and parallel positivity. Um, and that’s not to detract from how good a job Ben’s done. You know, where Ben is now and where he was two years ago, uh, totally different situation for him. and he recognizes that and understands that the group, what’s best for the group is probably someone that is able to drive those standards, the me mentality of the team consistently in and out of international windows and he’s unable to do that. Um, but that being said, I don’t think it’s a bad thing to rotate leadership because then now Ernie’s got someone like in Ben who who completely understands what he needs in terms of support, you know. I think that it’s it’s a and we’ve got a good group here, six or seven who could all wear the armband, Chris. They all could. Um, but it’s fallen upon Ernie on very capable shoulders to to take the mantle on and it was very well received by the group as well, which I’m happy to say. Yeah. a bit difficult if it wasn’t. Uh it was spring box back onto the international stage after they or young players with with springback ambitions has been something sailor’s managed to do for a number of players. Is Ernie another one who could who could make that move up? I mean he has that as we talking earlier to him about that hybrid ability of playing lock and six. Yeah, I look I you want all the players to be the best they can be, don’t I? Sounds a little bit like an army navy advert. Um, but I truly do I want them to attain and reach their ambitions and dreams. Cuz if you do that, then both of your motivation, me for getting the best out of them and them for getting the best out of themselves is aligned. And Ernie through all the attributes that you’ve talked about is more than capable of playing international rugby. Um he he just falls between a couple of a rock and a hard place in in South African terms given the strength and depth they have in the second row and at that kind of six 68 position they’ve got so many unbelievably unbelievable athletes there that increasingly difficult ult to fight your way into the South African squad in his position. Um, it’s been done, hasn’t it, with a three later down the lines, but that’s more of a a hooker seven. They like these hybrid roles. They do like hybrid roles. It means they can play 627 one splits on the bench. Yeah. But but the four, five, six kind of eight roll, they’re really fatting. the really um got a lot of strength and depth there. So I think it’s it’s a bit more of a difficult dream for him and at this point in time looking at it but you know who knows they play him at 35 in South Africa if you’re old enough you’re good enough they’ll play you so there’s time anyone’s got time in that respect and your target for the season is it’s it’s a it’s a hor question and let me ask it what is your target for the season there’s quite a lot that we want to achieve Um, I feel a debt to the hardcore fan base. I do. I really do cuz they’ve supported us each year and I’ve told them pretty much each year like we’re going for it this year uh only to fall a bit short. So, I want to repay a bit of that uh fanaticism that they’ve shown. I am tight with our owners Jed Sell like really tight. So, you know, I don’t want to I don’t want to I don’t want to waste any of their money, um, their resources. I go on that roller coaster of emotion with them. So, you know, I really like to do something special for them. We’re talking about the same things here. I think I think the bigger than that is the sense of failure within the squad. And I’ve been asked, well, you you’re not failing cuz clearly you get to finals and stuff, but there is a sense of failure because we haven’t achieved what we’re capable achieving, Chris. I just don’t think we’ve been at our best when the moment has required it. Um, and that’s what I’m desperate for now. That’s what I I really am, you know, willing to to scrap tooth and nail for is is to make good on on the talent we have within the building and and cutting our words. Good on our words. So, we’ve had a lot of conversation this preseason around how we can take the next step. And that’s not just in terms of accolades, but in terms of day-to-day consistency, preparation, performance, taking the next step in terms of performance. have said that, but winning at the start of the season, that’s all important. So, we we’ve had a lot of conversations around it, and I just feel like the talking’s done. Like, can we just can we just be good to our words? So, that’s what I want to achieve. Uh, and that’s that’s not just end end of season time, but like that starts on Thursday and then it starts on Friday in the recovery. And it’s every step, isn’t it? Is a is one I’m want to keep making. And I just want to I want to make sure we make good on that um then I’ll be satisfied. And that that’s taken outcome out of it. I think if we do that, if we prepared all of us individually and collectively to to do what’s right by the team in the next moment, whether it be a training session or on the field, then the outcomes will look after themselves. That’s why I’m not I haven’t gone to silverware because I just think we’ll get that if we if we all of us take this next step. Lovely. Always great to start off season with you. Thanks, Alex. Cheers, Chris. Thanks, man. It’s good to see you. Alex, it’s um something I touched on with talking about starts the season and how you can get a flying start. Yeah. Is there any sort of psychological thing you can do? I remember once a long time ago a football manager having his Christmas party in August to get properly. Um we I said we’ve we’ve delve we dive pretty deep. We’ve dived deep uh the last few weeks just around their own personal individual motivational drivers. We’ve tried to make it as intrinsic as possible, not external. Sometimes these are things that you do in the season to spike them if motivations are waning. Uh we’ve gone there early at this point. Um so that’s that’s one thing that we’ve done. We’ve we’ve had conversations around team identity. Uh, and that’s important, you know, not just the process, but who who you want to be. We’ve we’ve gone away to Portugal and played harder than we worked, you know, in in in a ways to bring the group together. There’s there’s a lot of things that we’ve we’ve tried to put in place uh in doing our kind of doing our work early if you like to to give us the best possible platform to uh to start the season well. And that involves a couple of live sessions in and around the Prem Cup games. It it’s a change in the management coaching structure as you know. It’s a change in captaincy. All these things should create if you if done in the right way with the right people little bumps. So yeah. So it’s been I wouldn’t say it’s one thing like Christmas dinner but multifaceted approach to starting well. Yeah. And intentional across all spectrum of things. You called Thursday a new Friday. How baby Friday you know you baby Friday. Have you got any idea how the tickets have gone or Steve? I sell out it. No, we still got a little bit to go. We’ve got a little We get get good walkings on Thursday night. The sun’s shining. Forecast is good. The forecast is nice. The sun is shining. So, that’s good. Yeah. I mean, it’s the best time to come and watch rugby up north. No better time. No better time than a Thursday night. No better time. Uh don’t all right. Look, it’s been a bit difficult. There’s a lot of rugby going on with the women’s world rugby world cup. Um and it’s fresh and it’s new for people, isn’t it? school night and all that, but I think we’ve um yeah, we’ll have a decent crowd, a good atmosphere. Great stuff. Good luck this season. Thanks, Adam. Cheers, Paul. Afternoon Al. Um just going back to the the captaincy question. Yeah. Um was the main driver behind that, the fact that Ben will now miss periods of the season and that Ernst is available in theory at the moment all year round. Is that was that the main driver behind it? Yeah, I would. It’s a difficult one that cuz it feels like the Ernie’s only got it cuz Ben is away. Look, the easier thing is to keep the status quo is to maintain the status quo. Should I say something that’s been working for us, but uh it there was there it’s not a driver. There’s just factors that had to be addressed and one of them is the consistency to drive it because of international win in windows. The other one is or the other ones are like Ben Ben has to focus has to focus on the World Cup as well, right? He needs to do that. I want him to do that. I want him to win a World Cup and win a Premiership. There’s the another factor that um it’s not it’s not an easy yoke to bear being a captain. You have to tread that fine line between the players and the coaches and still you know keep your confidentiality with the players but help the group and Jesus whoever it is has got to speak to me every Sunday. Poor bastards. So like for for Ben to to to carry that to have the a dual focus not just that he’s away but it’s increasingly difficult to focus and lean into England and having done it for 2 years. It was it was on the back of a conversation with him. I didn’t make the decision until I I spoke to him and it was like actually he he was the one saying it’s probably time for a change then is it Al? I’m like that’s how it went. So, I didn’t speak to Ernie or any of the lads until I sat down Ben. And that was the main driving influence was actually Ben’s maturity in the situation and reflection of all the things that have come to pass for him to say, “It’s probably time.” I’m like, “Right, let’s do this.” And then it gave me the the conviction to do it. Um, Ben was was one of those on a very successful England tour that was great to watch. It was a really really enjoyable watching over the summer. Obviously a lot of players in the sales squad were there. Byron obviously was on the coaching staff. How beneficial do you think a tour like that for for the sale players? How beneficial do you think that is coming into this season and the confidence that everyone who was on that tour will take now into this season? Yeah, it was a there was a marked difference from this season to last season with them coming on the back of the on the back off the tour how they were with the confidence that they had and how buzzing they were and probably been able to see themselves within that squad go towards a World Cup. You know, they enjoyed it. Uh obviously winning helps that, but I think they got it right on tour. the international management group got it right. Uh you know with Byron and Lee um being on that as well I’m sure helped. So uh yeah a lot less difficult. Yeah really beneficial. Really beneficial. That’s when it works at its best that Kieran when they go away and they come back better players more motivated because there’s loads of times that they’ve gone away and for different reasons have come back beaten up demotivated and you’ve got to try and raise them up again. It wasn’t the case this time. Um you you you touched a little bit earlier about the change in the coaching style. Yeah. In terms of and Joe coming in. How long had you kind of been thinking about perhaps freshening things up? And specifically with Marco and Joe, what was it about them that you thought, I need to get them on board? Oh, we we you always under some kind of parole. A lengthy contract doesn’t, if you’re honest with yourself, doesn’t offer much security in professional sport. like it doesn’t, you know, um you have a bad season and a really bad season and you’re out in your ear. There’s always someone waiting in the wings. That’s the reality of it. Um but I guess from uh last couple of years there’s been parts of the season where performances have been massively underpower and with a good squad it’s just not acceptable. At those points, you’re always I have to look as a director of rugby as what the succession plan looks like from a coaching perspective, not just from a playing perspective. So, I’m there’s always someone in the wings. Um, but the the people I have right now, the coaches are the ones that I’m backing and and and and will back and I have everything that all the resources I have and the club has to do a good job, but they’re always asked to and and same for me. Like there’s two people within this coaching department who want to be better directors of rugby than I do and my job is to make them better. Like Marco wants to be better than me and Joey underneath him. They both want that kind of succession plan. So, and I want that. I want that challenge. And that’s in part coming back to your second question is that’s what Marco gives me. There’s someone there who who will in time would happily take my job if he’s better than I am to do it and he’s there to challenge me in ways uh because of the experience he’s got. There’s that. That’s why he’s come in. He’s I think 110 cap international. So he he brings a specialist expertise in the second row area which I think is important with the likes of Ben Bambber and Tom Burough coming through young international English locks um 9 years experience as a do and he’s a psychological le coach so although is the methodology of what we do has changed what he helps me with is sharing the psychological load of managing the group. So, you know, it it there’s a there’s a the onfield coaching an hour, maybe two hours a day, three days a week. Let’s that’s max max onfield and that’s with everything warm-ups, cool downs, a lot. So, you can so you can see the ratio onfield coaching to off-field conversations and management. Um, and that’s the psychological load that I’m talking about. He’s he’s a he’s a big help there. Joey, uh, you know, a really young do a champ club. So, he he’s got he’s got perspective of big picture again. So, he’s he’s understands the kind of help that I need at times or the support I need. Uh uh and then coming back to a role as an attack coaches was where can he started a couple of years ago. It allows him to focus on a on a very specific area which he’s absolutely brilliant at. You know, I thought he’d be good. I heard I’d interviewed him and I’d heard good reports from some of our lads who were playing down at Donnie. They underestimated him. He’s a he’s a great coach, really good coach. And he brings with him the intellectual property of his family. you know, the Ford Empire, the coaching empire that is the Fords. So, um, yeah, I feel like at this moment we’ve jled well and there’s good cohesion, there’s going to be real tough times. Haven’t played a game yet. There’s going to be tough times and as long as we we keep we keep dovetailing because we we going to to lose and we went to to lose after we we lost to them. I’m dulging it. I’m rambling, but we went to to lose after we lost to them. They wanted us in cuz they saw something in us and they’ve done the stats and they reckon that we’ve got the potential to be a really good team. So, they wanted that relationship which will continue. But what we found in their environment was their co- coaching was far better than ours. So, if you get a lot of coaches in a room like we have, there’s at times a want a desire for each coach to get the pound of flesh. Do you know what I mean by that? like they want the minutes on field, they want the time, they want the focus to be about what they do. Whereas in to let other coaches coach areas of their department because they were so aligned in terms of their methodology and the language that he used, even the symbology. There’s a lot of visuals. So we were like, look, this is the way we want to go. a non- hierarchal coaching structure um which will shift and change depending on on who’s leading the session but everyone has the role to play within it. Do you see what I mean? Star shape structure like look up Apple they’ve got something similar. Uh so yeah big plans lots of marketing jargon but at the moment it feels good. Um, I think you asked about Tom a couple of weeks ago. How is his recovery going? Yeah, he’s great. Tom is he’s brilliant. He’s been getting beaten by his own. He said he’s getting beaten by his own valition being beaten by Mario Slow um doing some speed work the other day. So, he’s out there running around. He’s contributing meetings. Uh, every time Ben answers a question, Tom seems to add to it at the end, which the lads find hilarious. So he he’s he’s very present. He’s he’s really present. Like it’s not we’re going to miss him on the field on a weekend, but you wouldn’t guess that he’s not playing by how invested and how he’s contributing on on a on a daily basis. Is it still looking unlikely that he’ll play before autumn? Well, you look at him now, you play him this weekend, honestly, like he looks that fit and he’s that keen. You put him out there. I’ve just got to take medical advice and opinion, which is awesome. Um you I think you mentioned about not not not having a criticism of England but about that dynamic that relationship working both ways in terms of being rested not just by sale but by England. Have you had that conversation with with Steve Bing in terms of how that relationship can work those ways because that is how it probably should. Yeah it should. It should. Um yeah, only in passing have I had that conversation around Tom Phil Mor’s coming up on the 30th. So it’s something we’ll explore then. We’ll get a proper plan around it. And I’m you know like I say in the past we we did the plan and England said yeah that looks good and he ended up playing more games that both of us would have liked to play but he felt good. He’s obviously played really well and he enjoyed it. He’s like that feels right that. So, you know, if we can build it around a similar principle where he doesn’t go more than three or four games on the bounce, where he always has that week to kind of rehab his hip and work on his mechanics, it seems to keep him fresh for for this for the season long. So, I assume we’ll work around that.

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