The teams lists are out and despite the absence of Luke Morahan, who I imagine is being eased back into the team gently after his injury lay off, and Semi, possibly because he is still on the warm down after all the metres he made against Bath, the line up is still very strong. Bringing Siale into 12 and Bedlow onto the bench will add extra beef as will the inclusion of Chapparo who will no doubt want to steak a claim in the front row. No point ‘pampa-ring’ this lad. He’s an All Black slayer and thrives on contact so throwing him in against the Sharks’ pack will be the perfect introduction to English rugby. Rumour also has it that Siva Nualago has spent the last few weeks having his rig reconditioned (copyright @CrootMatt) at the Marvel studios in California so no doubt will be desperate to avenge his omission from last week’s squad. And moving O’Conor to 13 is just down right filthy and gives him the chance to perfect his outside break even more.
Despite the demolition of Bath, Bristol clearly face a tougher challenge. Chock-full of snarling South Africans, sporting a World Cup winning scrum half of extraordinary dimensions and bringing a deserved reputation for direct, physical rugby, the Sharks will be as aggressive as them down the road were timid. Their defence has been pretty solid all season but at times they have lacked in attack, especially against what might considered the stronger teams. They were turned over by Wasps and Newcastle earlier in the season and made about as much impact in Europe as Theresa May but have picked up most of their points by grinding out wins against the slightly lesser opposition. However, the Sale team sheet still looks pretty strong and and I’m sure that rugby purists will look forward to the Southern Hemisphere-heavy back row battle with alacrity (anyone?). But don’t take it all from me. If you want hear more then click here to access the latest episode of Bears Beyond The Gate and listen to Lewis Hughes from the Shark Tank give you more of the low down.
Either way this still has the feel of a big clash under the lights and it will be fascinating to see how the contrasting styles of the two teams face off. Having scored against them off the bench last year, when he was still revising for his GCSEs, Ioan Lloyd will no doubt try to cast spells with his Welsh wizardry and I am also hoping that pump action Purdy pushes on from his punchy performance last week and gets his name on the scoresheet. Apart from that it looks like ‘system’ business as usual and hopefully Andy Uren will take confidence from his MOM performance and remind Faf de Klerk that there’s more than one hair bear in town.
Of course the one big difference in the Sale set up is that they no longer have Mr Marmite, Steve Diamond, in charge and in his place have appointed old boy and ex Saracens coach Alex Sanderson. He has joined with a great reputation for coaching a team full of internationals in an era when they were breaking the salary cap and appears to have been warmly ushered into his new post by all and sundry in the media although there is a suspicion that this is partly due to his penchant for a good ‘TV moment’. Don’t get me wrong, he clearly deserves respect for his achievements in a game that is both physically and mentality demanding but I do still remember his down with the kids defence of the Saracens salary cap breach with the ‘haters gonna, hate, hate ,hate’ quote followed by the line ‘I don’t mean to belittle the scenario, not at all, but that’s our mentality right’, which kind of means to me that their mentality was exactly to belittle the situation by declining to show any humility. Quotes like that set off the warning bells as to me it suggests a whiff of hubris – the trait of excessive pride or self confidence – and in a game where success revolves so much around team ethos rather than individual glory I do hope for his sake that this was a minor blip. That said, further grist to my mill was added when I came across a BT Sport Day in Life feature recorded at the height of his Saracens career and I don’t know, maybe he was playing to the cameras but something just didn’t ring true to me. It was a little bit too laddy, a bit too, ‘look at me I’ve fed the baby’ and to bring in a cultural reference from the 90s, a bit too Loaded. Sanderson seemed to think that referring to one of the players as Tongan John was hilarious. In the clubhouse maybe but not on camera. It had a bit of David Brent about it and not necessarily aligned with the current rugby management Zeitgeist. But if you want to judge for yourself click here and have a watch. Maybe I’m just jealous. I am as pleased as anyone when a young English coach gets success and yes, Sanderson has a personality that attracts new people to the game, but I am also aware of similar stars from the pitch who have transitioned nicely into a coaching role but have struggled with the step up to DoR. Think Paul Gustard, think George Skivington and and dare I say it… oh go on then, think Stuart Hooper. As we know only too well at Bristol, because we have one of the best in the world in Pat Lam, it takes time to build a winning culture. Pat failed at the Auckland Blues and then honed his ideas and philosophy at unfashionable Connacht before setting the Bears in the road to glory. But he is no mug. He knows how hard it is and he knows that there has to be clarity of vision with all the planets aligned before you even think about developing consistent success. There is a gravitas about Pat that commands respect. If you don’t believe me then click here to go to Episode 50 of Bears Beyond The Gate and hear it straight from the thoroughbred’s mouth himself.
So what has this all got to do with Friday’s game? Well, it sets the context. New cocky young Englishman takes over a successful yet somewhat one dimensional team forged in the personality of Steve Diamond and comes up against the man who has written the DoR manual and is supervising a squad high on confidence and low on fear who have just executed the best 60 minutes of attacking rugby seen this side of Timbuktu. Everything suggests that the Bears will pocket another win on home turf and if they do I hope that Alex Sanderson takes the chance to have a socially distanced chat with Pat to pick his phenomenal rugby brain but if Sale upset the odds and snatch a win then I also hope that Alex Sanderson will take the chance to have a socially distanced chat with Pat to pick his phenomenal rugby brain and not resort to hubristic outbursts that reference young female American singers for the benefit of BT Sport summarisers and the producers of ‘I’m a Celebrity get me out of here’
Filthy Rig 