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De Klerk and Curry among 11 internationals in Sale Sharks starting XV

Faf de Klerk and Tom Curry get reacquainted at the RWC

Sale Sharks are bolstered by the return of two World Cup finalists as they look to ignite their Champions Cup challenge against La Rochelle on Sunday.

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The Sharks were defeated 13-7 in their round one trip to Glasgow and must topple their Pool 2 rivals from France at the AJ Bell Stadium if they to stay in contention for a quarter-final place.

World Cup winner Faf de Klerk is restored at scrum-half following his heroics in Japan and also present as one of nine changes is England’s Tom Curry at openside.

Also back are Red Rose wings Chris Ashton and Denny Solomona, but Sale have confirmed that Josh Beaumont will be out for up to five months because of a serious knee injury that required surgery.

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“It’s fantastic to be back in the Champions Cup at the AJ Bell and after the disappointment of losing the arm wrestle at Glasgow, the lads will be looking to bounce back,” director of rugby Steve Diamond said.

“La Rochelle are a hugely physical team and we had a great match with them last year in the Challenge Cup quarter-final, so we know what they are about.

“We just have to make sure we get our basics right and perform this weekend.”

Gloucester face an uphill task to progress after losing their Pool Five opener against Toulouse and must travel to Montpellier to revive their aspirations of reaching the knockout phase.

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Head coach Johan Ackermann has made 11 changes with only full-back Jason Woodward, centre Chris Harris, number eight Freddie Clarke and lock Gerbrandt Grobler surviving.

“There’s no easy game in this group and even more so now that Montpellier also lost their first game,” Ackermann said.

“They will probably want to fix that this weekend at home and we are their next opposition.

“So we know that we’ll be up against a highly-motivated side. They will be under a bit of pressure.”

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Sale Sharks Starting XV

15. Simon Hammersley, 14. Denny Solomona, 13. Rohan Janse van Rensburg, 12. Rob du Preez, 11. Chris Ashton, 10. AJ MacGinty, 9. Faf de Klerk; 1. Ross Harrsion, 2. Akker van der Merwe, 3. Coenie Oosthuizen, 4. Bryn Evans, 5. Jean-Luc du Preez, 6. Ben Curry, 7. Tom Curry, 8. Jono Ross (Capt)

Replacements

16. Rob Webber, 17. Valery Morozov, 18. Will-Griff John, 19. James Phillips, 20. Matt Postlethwaite, 21. Embrose Papier, 22. Luke James, 23. Marland Yarde

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J
JW 42 minutes ago
'They smelt it': Scott Robertson says Italy sensed All Blacks' vulnerability

Even the 20/30 cappers did too I reckon.


IDK, I think Jordan has a limited life span in this side unless he can develop more to his game. Like you go on to mention, I think theyres more important things to worry about than the effectiveness of someone's extra strings, or secondary components to their game.


Bash backs are Fosters thing, and to a large part they've made it work. Theyre now one of the best teams in the world.


They boy's trucked it up a bit against Italy in the redzone, and against France, wasn't that effective without the right players probably.


Try and take a look at it this way. Dissapointed Havili and Blackadder were in the side? Havili despite clearly shown that he can't do what the team needs at 12 was kept on for the RWC. Back goes down and he brings in Blackadder who doesn't play. Refuses to drop Christie when he should and look who starts this season. Beauden Barret not playing well enough to keep his 10 jersey but we gotta keep him in the side. Weve only got one 8, we stuff developing another I'll just play Ardie every game.


This years team wasn't burdened overly with injuries but they were in every position Razor might have wanted to try and development, severely limiting options. I'm not defending Razor as there was also plenty of other opportunity to make up for it and he was a little gunshy, but I'm also not going to overly criticise him because he chose cohesion over a black slate.

How long are we going to keep blaming All Black failings on Ian Foster.

I think more and more people are on board with it being time to try alternatives, but then again, how would they have reacted to a loss against Italy? 😉

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