'He and the likes of Cowan-Dickie are pushing for Lions honours'

Alex Sanderson backed Tom Curry to get on a second Lions tour after the England flanker did his very best to capture the attention of Andy Farrell at Twickenham Stoop.

Curry produced the kind of carrying and try-scoring performance which England fans have enjoyed for many years in Sale’s 43-29 victory over Harlequins in the Premiership.

But the flanker, who was fighting back from hip surgery this time last year, needs to be “protected” to avoid doing himself further damage according to a delighted Sharks boss Sanderson, whose team jumped into the top four in their fight for a play-off place.

Curry, 26, is keen to go on a second Lions tour this summer, and Sanderson said: “How good is Tom? He’s put in a good shift there. He was brilliant but you have to look after him.

“These are boys you have to protect for themselves. He and the likes of Cowan-Dickie are pushing for Lions honours and they richly deserve it if you’re just going on that game.

“They are naming the squad soon for Australia but you’d like to think Tom will have a chance.

“We have a great pack. Asher Opoku-Fordjour was outstanding too. He’s so powerful. That will set him apart from other tightheads. But you still have to do the bread and butter in mauling and scrummaging.

“George Ford was outstanding in the windy conditions. He controlled the game.”

Sharks welcomed back scrum-half Raffi Quirke from the bench for his first appearance since January while Quins had another England man, Cadan Murley, in their side following injury.

Murley grabbed one of his side’s four tries but that is all the Londoners managed from a game they desperately needed to win to realistically have a chance of making the top four with just four games remaining.

Quins tries came from Jack Kenningham, Murley, Cameron Anderson and Nathan Jibulu, but they were no match for Sharks who saw Curry cross for two and Cowan-Dickie, Opoku-Fordjour, Jonny Hill, Jean-Luc du Preez and Tom Roebuck each grab a try.

England veteran fly-half George Ford was outstanding once again in controlling the game but insists his side still have work to do to secure a play-off spot.

He said: “It’s a huge win but there are still four massive games remaining so plenty of work still to be done.

“We knew we could cause them problems. I have to use my guys as weapons in the right areas of the field and it worked well today. We know what we can do given the time and openings. We wanted to defend well and remain disciplined.

“Games in the run-in are going to be won and lost in the final 10 or 15 minutes. So we need to step up as leaders and make sure we win these games rather than just survive.”

Quins boss Danny Wilson refuses to give up on his team’s chances of somehow scrapping a top-four spot even though they will need to win all four games and rely on others to falter.

He said: “There are still four games and 20 points left to play for so we will continue to fight. We have Tigers next and need to patch ourselves up and learn from this result and move on.”