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The post-game Sale update on latest Manu Tuilagi injury
By Liam Heagney
Alex Sanderson is refusing to believe that Manu Tuilagi has played his last match for Sale, claiming that he has a chance of making their June 1 semi-final at Bath even though he limped off with hamstring damage at Saracens.
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The England midfield powerhouse has signed a deal that will take him to Bayonne in the Top 14 next season and he now faces a race against time to be fit to feature for the Sharks again following their convincing 20-10 win over the defending Gallagher Premiership champions.
That Sale heist at StoneX Stadium denied Saracens home advantage in the semi-finals, instead leaving them travelling to Northampton on May 31 with Sanderson’s third-place team booked in to visit The Rec the day after.
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Tuilagi exited the field in London after getting hurt in a 17th-minute carry that was ended when chopped down by Ben Earl.
Defeat for Sale would have meant that Saturday was his final appearance as they would have been overtaken on the table by Bristol. However, semi-final qualification means that the season now has one – if not two – more games left.
“We are going to get it checked out,” explained Sanderson in the aftermath of a match where tries from Tom Roebuck and Rob du Preez, along with 10 points from the boot of George Ford, proved too got for Saracens to handle.
“He has definitely pulled his hamstring, we just don’t know how bad. But he is a quick healer, we know that, and we have got two weeks to put Humpty Dumpty back together again so we will give him as long as we can.”
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Ford has electrified the Sale attack since his post-Guinness Six Nations return to the club following England duty and Sanderson sang his praises for a display where he left opposition No10 Owen Farrell firmly in the shade.
“George Ford has been phenomenal. You meet players and there are only a couple I have met – Owen Farrell is one – with this type of influence and how he can take a group and turn a group.
“He is a tough kid, George, and he gets stuck in. He was quite aggressive afterwards, he was saying, ‘We are not celebrating this, we are going for Bath’.”
Sale blew a lead in the second half of last year’s Twickenham final, but there was no result-altering comeback from Saracens on this occasion after they found themselves 20-3 behind with 27 minutes remaining.
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“I thought it was a really mature second half how we were able to manage the game because there was a high ball-in-play time in the first half.
“We leaned into the set-piece, which burns some of the clock. We’re not talking about gamesmanship here. They [Saracens] were just going, trying to run us off our feet, so you have got to lean into areas of strength which we felt today were the set-piece and our physicality. How they managed that second half was a really good sign of growth for this group.
“Reaching the play-offs has not really dawned on me,” he added. “From where we were post-Six Nations to getting to the top four is a Herculean effort from the lads. I give them all credit. They have taken hold of it since the Six Nations. Their ownership has taken it to a different level and they are loving it.”
"It's more than belief, I know they are capable!"
– The Alex Sanderson hot take on an exceptional Premiership win for Sale at Saracens, from Liam Heagney ?? at StoneX Stadium ??? #GallagherPrem #SARvSAL #EnglandRugby #rugby pic.twitter.com/1X0vbwBB1L
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) May 18, 2024
