While a home semi-final realistically looks beyond third-placed Sale, Pat Sanderson has opted to field a near full-strength team to face a weakened Harlequins … just in case Exeter somehow slip-up against Northampton on Sunday.
Bonus-point wins for both teams would all but mathematically rule out that prospect due the massive points difference in favour of the defending champions. But if the Chiefs fail to win at Franklin’s Gardens, Sale will go down to Devon on the final weekend knowing a place in the top-two is still up for grabs.
Alex Sanderson isn’t the sort of bloke who likes to die wondering, plus the Sharks have momentum behind them. He wants that snowball effect to roll into the play-offs regardless of whether they finish second, third or even fourth, hence the reason why the half-back axis of Faf de Klerk and AJ MacGinty remains intact and Jean-Luc du Preez gets the chance to build on his man-of-the-match performance against Bristol in Round 19 with another outing in the second row. And last but not least, Manu Tuilagi starts at 12.
Sale were around the -5/-6 mark a few days ago, well before the teams were announced, but Quins’ decision to rest talisman Marcus Smith for the first time this season, amongst many other changes, has resulted in this being pushed out to -18.
Whilst it might be galling to back the Sharks on the handicap armed with this knowledge, they should still be way too strong for the Londoners, who suffered a 48-10 blowout on their last visit to the AJ Bell Stadium – and that’s when they had all their stars on board like Smith, Danny Care, Chris Robshaw and Kyle Sinckler, and Sale weren’t half as good as they are now.
Quins also conceded over a half-century of points when they opted to give fringe players a go against Ulster in the Champions Cup so it’s not like the ‘second string’ have proven themselves to be able deputies this season and they could be in for a tough evening.
Sale’s territory-based, low percentage gameplan is not normally conducive to high-scoring sprees but they showed at Scarlets, in winning 57-14, what they are capable of when the shackles are off.
Sale Sharks: 15 Simon Hammersley, 14 Byron McGuigan, 13 Sam James, 12 Manu Tuilagi, 11 Marland Yarde, 10 AJ MacGinty, 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Daniel du Preez, 7 Ben Curry, 6 Cameron Neild, 5 Jean-Luc du Preez, 4 Josh Beaumont (c), 3 Coenie Oosthuizen, 2 Akker van der Merwe, 1 Ross Harrison
Replacements: 16 Curtis Langdon, 17 Bevan Rodd, 18 Will-Griff John, 19 Jean-Pierre du Preez, 20 Jono Ross, 21 Will Cliff, 22 Robert du Preez, 23 Rohan Janse van Rensburg
Harlequins: 15 Tyrone Green, 14 Aaron Morris, 13 Joe Marchant, 12 Ben Tapuai, 11 Oscar Beard, 10 James Lang, 9 Martin Landajo, 8 Tom Lawday, 7 Luke Wallace, 6 Archie White, 5 Stephan Lewies, 4 Dino Lamb, 3 Will Collier, 2 Joe Gray, 1 Santiago Garcia Botta
Replacements: 16 Elia Elia, 17 Fin Baxter, 18 Simon Kerrod, 19 Tevita Cavubati, 20 Hugh Tizard, 21 Scott Steele, 22 Will Edwards, 23 Louis Lynagh
