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Sale confirm World Cup winner de Jager is set for Friday night debut

(Photo by Steve Haag/Gallo Images)

South African World Cup-winning lock Lood de Jager is set for a Friday night debut off the bench as Sale Sharks begin life without Chris Ashton, the England winger who had his contract torn up on Monday and was signed by Harlequins on Wednesday.

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Steve Diamond has made just two changes to his starting line-up following last weekend’s win at Gloucester. Jake Cooper-Woolley is the sole change in the forwards for Friday’s clash at home to London Irish, the experienced Premiership tighthead trading places with Will-Griff John. 

The only other change to the XV sees Denny Solomona return on the right wing in place of Byron McGuigan, who has been in Six Nations camp this week with Scotland.

New signing de Jager has battled back from two shoulder operations in 2019, the second coming after making a tackle on England No8 Billy Vunipola in the 21st minute of the November World Cup final which South Africa won 32-12 in Yokohama. 

The 27-year-old told RugbyPass earlier this week: “In the last twelve months I have had two shoulder operations, won the World Cup and moved to England, a pretty busy time. There have been lots of ups and downs, a bit of a rollercoaster. Let’s hope the injuries stay away now. I haven’t got another shoulder to injure – just the two.

(Continue reading below…)

England vs Italy postponed

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“It has been worth it and the World Cup win is something I will never forget. They gave me some pretty strong pain killers so I could celebrate the win and the surgery took place after the trophy tour, which was an incredible experience. 

“I’m really excited about playing my first game for Sale… I spoke to Steve a lot before I signed and we all want to achieve something special over the next couple of years.”

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SALE (vs London Irish, Friday)

15. Simon Hammersley, 14. Denny Solomona, 13. Sam James, 12. Luke James, 11. Marland Yarde, 10. Rob du Preez, 9. Will Cliff; 1. Coenie Oosthuizen, 2. Rob Webber, 3. Jake Cooper-Woolley, 4. Bryn Evans, 5. Jean-Luc du Preez, 6. Jono Ross (capt.), 7. Ben Curry, 8. Daniel du Preez. Reps: 16. Curtis Langdon, 17. Ross Harrison, 18. Will-Griff John, 19. James Phillips, 20. Lood de Jager, 21. Faf de Klerk, 22. Tom Curtis, 23. Byron McGuigan.

WATCH: The confusing Mako Vunipola fallout

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Flankly 2 hours ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
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