After weeks and months of (im)patiently waiting whilst Sale's Premiership rivals strengthened around them, the Sharks - perhaps preemptively given that the news first broke on BBC Scotland on Monday evening - finally announced their first addition to the squad ahead of the upcoming 2017-18 season. And what an addition it is; Josh Strauss, number eight for Glasgow Warriors and the Scottish national team has penned a three-year-contract in what is the highest profile signing for the Mancunian club since another Scottish international, Richie Gray, joined the club before the 2012-13 season. Reassuringly there is no reason to believe that Strauss's time in the North-West will resemble that of his international team-mate. Whereas Gray's athletic style struggled to find an appropriate role within a Sale team that capitulated during the season's first half that year, ultimately moving across the Channel to Casters at the end of the campaign, Strauss is the perfect remedy to the lack of a second impact carrier that has ailed Sale since the emergence of Josh Beaumont during the 2014-15 season. The big-name profile attached to this current Tier One international, augmented by his influential role in a Glasgow Warriors team that won the Pro 12 two years ago and is currently generating seismic waves in the European Champions Cup, would be enough to placate fears that all the talk of significant investment from Sale's new parent company was just that - talk. But the brilliance in luring a current Home Nations international and one of the standout players in all of Europe over the past two seasons to Sale Sharks is that, as well as making a splash off the field, the 30-year-old South African-cum-Glaswegian immediately rectifies two of Sale's most glaring issues, a lack of balance in the back-row and a lack of on-field direction. As a back-row, not only does Strauss bring the height, physicality and game-breaking carrying which Sale have desperately lacked this season, Strauss also brings a wealth of experience and on-field leadership down to Manchester, having cultivated such attributes during stints as both the Lions and Glasgow's captain. Whilst Sale have a plethora of experienced heads in the dressing room, many are currently finding it difficult to get a sustained run in the first-team and as such, are unable to influence the relatively young leadership group (Beaumont, Addison etc.) Sale have promoted this season. Strauss will instantly be placed in a position to lead by example. In short, amongst other attributes, Strauss is immediately the best pure ball-carrier Sale have had since the glory days of Sebastian Chabal and whilst I'm hesitant to place the Bellville, Western Cape native in the same bracket as Kieran Read, Louis Picamoles or Billy Vunipola in terms of world-class ability at his position, Strauss is a top-tier player who will make an immediate difference to Sale's pack next season. So where does Strauss fit into the Sale lineup in 2017-18? Admittedly, much still depends on whether the Sharks ultimately recruit an out-and-out flanker (a la Scott Fardy) and/or a heavier lock to partner with the more athletic Bryn Evans ahead of next season. Should they sign a flanker and not a lock, it would signal Sale envisage Strauss as their unequivocal first-choice No.8 (a wise choice given that Strauss is arguably only 4th or 5th in line at his position for a place on this year's Lions tour) and which in turn would precipitate Beaumont moving to the second row long-term. However signing Strauss also offers Sale a hitherto unconsidered degree of flexibility in how they set up their back-row. Strauss has turned out at both blindside flanker and No.8 for Glasgow and often played at openside flanker during his time with the Lions in Super Rugby. Therefore if Sale ultimately sign another lock, thus negating the necessity of moving Beaumont to the second row, Sale could lineup at 6/7/8 in a number of different combinations that pair Beaumont and Strauss together as two gargantuan ball-carriers. On the assumption that TJ Ioane retains his place as Sale's first-choice blindside over Cameron Neild, Sale could lineup with a back row of: Strauss/Ioane/Beaumont Ioane/Strauss/Beaumont - (my personal favourite) Beaumont/Ioane/Strauss Or if Sale would prefer to keep Ioane (who I would like to designate as a 'volume' carrier rather than the aforementioned 'impact' carrier due to the paucity of his individual line-breaks) on the bench as a late-game option to wear out opposition defences and instead pick a more traditional 'jackal', Sale could instead opt for: Strauss/Neild/Beaumont Neild/Strauss/Beaumont Strauss/Seymour/Beaumont Strauss/Lund/Beaumont This is before even entertaining the notion of Laurence Pearce returning into first-team rotation who could be used in tandem with Strauss and Beaumont in the back-row: Pearce/Strauss/Beaumont or allow Beaumont to move to lock and give Sale at least three notable ball-carriers of 6ft 4' or taller in their back-five at any one time: Evans/Beaumont + Pearce/Ioane/Strauss Evans/Beaumont + Pearce/Neild/Strauss Evans/Beaumont + Pearce/Lund/Strauss Evans/Beaumont + Ioane/Strauss/Pearce. Given how much more effectively Sale's forward pack has performed since the volume carries of Ioane have been combined with the height and length of Magnus Lund and Josh Beaumont from the opening whistle, one would assume Sale's strongest lineup would integrate Strauss into a back-five that offers at least two other destructive ball-carriers (i.e. Ioane and Beaumont). For now exactly how Sale will lineup in the opening round of the 2017-18 season remains up in the air. But the addition of Strauss gives them a degree of versatility one wouldn't initially expect from signing one of the best five or six No. 8's in European (international) rugby. Conventional logic would indicate Strauss will now become Sale's de facto No.8 and captain Josh Beaumont will move permanently into the second row at least until Strauss is away on international duty (how nice is it that Sale now have to worry about such things?) But Strauss' potential impact at Sale goes beyond just that - in the Scotland No.8, Sale have signed a genuine game-changing player in the pack who has the potential to revolutionise their entire forwards strategy for next season. Not a bad way to kick start what will hopefully be the most exciting recruitment period for the club in over a decade. Follow The Shark Tank on Twitter for more news, analysis and opinions on all things Sale Sharks.
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It is telling that despite Sale putting together their most complete, and indeed controlling performance of the season Friday night against Newcastle, the Sharks still ultimately required a heroic 74th minute strike from the boot of Will Addison to rescue a much-needed fourth Premiership win of the season. Sale, who had dominated proceedings against their Northern rivals for much of the game, were cruising towards victory by virtue of touchdowns from Denny Solomona, Byron McGuigan and Bryn Evans until two opportune intercept tries from Verniki Goneva suddenly put the North-East club up 24-23 to the good and threatened to complete a second consecutive Premiership meltdown at home for the Sharks who endured a similar fate against Bristol on New Year’s Day. But in a final quarter performance which showed an admirable degree of resilience to rebound from two cruelly unfortunate passages of play which allowed Goneva the latter two of his triumvirate of tries, Sale’s game-long scrumtime dominance bore fruit and gave Addison – once again assertive in his captaincy – the opportunity to kick Sale to a well-deserved victory. Indeed it was a bizarre, bordering on farcical encounter between the Premiership’s two most northernmost clubs. Newcastle entered the Sale 22 precisely four times, one for each try they scored, three of which came from extremely fortuitous circumstances. A 1st minute Joel Hodgson penalty clattered back off the crossbar into the waiting arms of Juan Pablo Socino to hand the Falcons an immediate lead. Sale replied impressively pressuring the visitors into conceding two kickable penalties which Addison duly converted until another serendipitous bounce, this time from a combined Bryn Evans-Magnus Lund lineout interception attempt which popped up to a waiting Goneva who burst pass Cameron Neild and over the try-line. In response Sale finally began to assert their clear dominance, capitalising on Goneva’s sin-binning for a cynical attempt to kick the ball out of Mark Jennings’ hand to facilitate Denny Solomona waltzing over into the corner, his fifth try in four Premiership appearances. Solomona was then involved in Sale’s second, charging over Joel Hodgson on the touchline before presenting the ball to Sale’s jack-of-all-trades Byron McGuigan who astutely gathered the ball at the ruck and sprang over in the corner to give the home side a deserved 18-12 half-time lead and continue the Namibian’s fine form in 2017. After the orange slices, Bryn Evans produced a scintillating reaching finish to push Sale out even further on fifty minutes and almost assure Sale of the comfortable win so desperately needed after six consecutive Premiership losses – ‘almost’ being the operative word given the Sharks’ over-eagerness in blindly shipping the ball down the line upon which Goneva feasted. Thankfully, Addison continued his superb form from the kicking tee to knock over the game’s winning score and alleviate the final wave of Falcons pressure, coming good on another of his customary jinking runs to break thirty metres down field and kill off the game’s remaining seconds. Overall this was not an ideal result. For all of Sale’s controlled and focused play, to so haphazardly gift Newcastle the three tries which ensured they returned to the North-East with both a losing and a try bonus point is a poor reflection of how dominant the Sharks were in all aspects of the game and how convincingly they should have ran in a five-point victory. However at this stage of the season Sale have to be looking behind rather than forwards, and the four points they did accumulate, in combination with Bristol’s 8-42 thumping at the hands of Harlequins finally affords Sale some much-needed breathing room (11 points to be precise) between themselves and the bottom of the table. Honourable mentions this week extends to the entirety of the team who produced a coherent and efficient performance in victory. Extra special mentions however go to: Ross Harrison and Rob Webber for their respective eighty-minute performances; Mike Phillips who's ball distribution and decision-making appeared noticeably sharper this week; Mark Jennings who offered an exciting glimpse of his potential as an all-round lynchpin in the middle of the Sharks’ backline And finally George Nott and Ben Curry for a pair of fiery cameos supplemented by some technically excellent defensive work. Follow The Shark Tank on Twitter for more news, analysis and opinions on all things Sale Sharks. Please also consider supporting The Shark Tank on Patreon; only £4 a month away from affording an upgrade in hosting subscription. With the 2016-17 season now well past the halfway mark and recruitment for next season underway for the majority of teams, now is an opportune time to revisit Sale's transfer dealings from a year ago and assess how they've fared in their first six months in Manchester. CorpAcq's summer acquisition of the club - and promise of substantial investment into the playing squad - ultimately came too close to the beginning of the season to drastically affect any of Sale's transfer activities before July. Erstwhile, despite the losses of club stalwarts Tommy Taylor, Vadim Cobilas and Danny Cipriani, Steve Diamond found himself predominately investing in a number of squad players to supplement the core of young, English players the club hope(d) will ascend to a similar star status of those who departed in June, with the team's most exciting signings - Josh Charnley and Denny Solomona - were both considered project players who, whilst talented, may have required a substantial bedding in time in union. With that in mind, let's assess how the thirteen new members of Sale have fared thus far as a return to Premiership action looms. Halani Aulika – B Originally brought in, presumably, to back up Brian Mujati and Kieran Longbottom, Aulika has since dispatched that narrative, pouncing upon injuries to the former two to decisively win Sale’s starting tighthead jersey. Having brought his infamous destructive loose play with him from London Irish, Aulika has also shown a pleasantly surprising ability to force turnovers at the breakdown (including three in twenty minutes against Scarlets a fortnight ago) and has been one of Sale’s most consistent performers in the season’s first half. And whilst his scrummaging has flitted between dominant and vulnerable depending on who is matching up against, Aulika has, in the majority of encounters, remained in the ascendency and shed his label as the most penalised prop in the Premiership (2015-16), especially since being paired with Rob Webber and Ross Harrison. Indeed it is only his unfortunate tendency to give away hot-headed and costly penalties that stops Aulika from attaining a perfect A* grade. Josh Charnley – C As a player new to the game of union and coming off a long, Grand Final-winning season, Josh Charnley’s relatively slow start to his Sale career (especially in contrast to Denny Solomona) can be forgiven. Charnley clearly has all the physical attributes to exceed in union and has impressed in early outings with his strength in contact and a decisive quickness which lets him explode through gaps in the defensive line. However it is his defence – both his individual tackling which sees him too frequently attempt to go high on an opposition ball-carrier - and defensive positioning (a tendency to ‘blitz’ out of the defensive line) – which still require the work to propel him into a quality Premiership player. Those things will come in time, however. At this stage patience is the key for Charnley and Sale fans. Expect big things next season. Curtis Langdon – N/A Hasn’t featured for the first-team this season but was selected in England’s U20 Six Nations squad. Definitely one to be earmarked for the future. AJ MacGinty – C An injured hamstring suffered by MacGinty in the season’s opening game hampered any semblance of consistency in the Sale backline for much of the season’s first half and prevented the American fly-half the ample time necessary for him to embed his distinctive playing style into the Sharks’ attack. So with MacGinty’s distribution and orchestration of the Sale backline having been cumbersome at best, it is instead his instinctive ball-carrying and ability to break the line himself which have been the standout moments of MacGinty’s career as the Sale fly-half thus far. However with his goal-kicking above 80% for the season, his defence as tenacious as advertised and his in-play kicking immediately benefitting from the arrival of Denny Solomona, I’m an AJ MacGinty apologist and am determined he should be given a consistent run of starts until the end of the season before assessing his true value to the team. After all, it took Danny Cipriani a while to acclimatise to Manchester and MacGinty no longer has the reigning Pro12 Player of the Year Bundee Aki outside him. Kieran Longbottom – C- Another player who spent a sizeable portion of the early season (two months) out with injury, and who is still recovering from nearly two years out with a foot injury, Kieran Longbottom understandably has yet to make the impact expected of the former Saracens prop. Most worrisome is that the Australian has struggled at times with his scrummaging and has been worked over by more technically adept looseheads; his natural scrummaging style means his legs are planted very far back and is a liability to collapse, something more opportunistic props have seized upon. Longbottom has, however, continued to improve as his recovery from both injuries has progressed and like with a number of Sale’s summer contingent has turned in his best performances in a Sale shirt in recent weeks. Byron McGuigan – B Impressive whenever called upon be it at full-back or wing, Byron McGuigan, especially in light of Arscottgate, has cemented his place as an invaluable utility back in the Sale first team. Abrasive in contact but also with the ability to beat defenders to the outside, McGuigan’s versatility has been key with Mike Haley’s September layoff with a shoulder injury and the termination of fellow winger Tom Arscott’s contract. Add in the fact that he’s also shown himself to be an adequate place-kicker when called upon, the Namibian has made an ideal start to his time in Manchester. Dan Mugford – C- Mugford has so far struggled for gametime with the Sale first team with Sam James’ promotion to fly-half behind MacGinty indicative of how he is probably viewed by the coaching staff. The one advantage Mugford does possess however is how his natural skillset as a distributor appears to make him a better fit than MacGinty within Sale’s current attacking structure. That said, should another Premiership-standard fly-half become available, one expects Mugford is a likely candidate to move on in search of greater gametime. Paolo Odogwu – A Already showing international potential at 19, Paolo Odogwu’s game-breaking foot pace, complimented by a powerful motor in contact has made him one of the signings of the season, period. Having spent September and October as Sale’s most impressive attacking player, Odogwu’s has also impressed on the other side of the ball – his defensive positioning within the Sale back-three has shown a clear understanding of the intricacies of the modern game whilst his individual tackling has been second-to-none, complimented by his recovery speed. Odogwu’s game-time will be managed closely in the season’s second-half to prevent a burnout, however the immediate impact he has made this season and the potential he has flashed to expand upon in seasons to come make him the pick of Sale’s signings for this season so far. Laurence Pearce – C Laurence Pearce was one of the more intriguing summer acquisitions coming into the season given his brief but enticing career at Leicester Tigers. But after a debut performance in the Premiership’s opening round that saw him subbed off at half-time, Pearce has since been conspicuously absent for the majority of the season’s first half (although in recent weeks a shoulder injury has been mooted as the explanation for the 26-year-old). Indeed for someone anticipated by many, including myself, to become a consistent fixture in the Sharks’ backrow, that six of Pearce’s ten appearances in a Sale shirt thus far have come in the LV Cup / latter rounds of the Champions Cup pool stage speaks volumes about how there would appear to be a behind-the-scenes reason as to why the number eight has played so little a role in 2016/17, especially given how Sale’s most pressing need has often been a combative ball-carrier in the pack. Despite an underwhelming start to the season however in which he has failed to nail down the blindside flanker spot he appeared a natural fit for, Pearce has shown a lot of promise in recent weeks. Returning to the first team noticeably leaner, Pearce has shown both his destructive capabilities with ball-in-hand and his prowess as a breakdown jackal in the wins over Scarlets and Cardiff. A big second-half of the season could hopefully follow.
Mike Phillips – D
For all the experience the 34-year-old, 94-cap Phillips’ brings to Sale, his slow distribution, poor tactical kicking and inability – or disinclination – to use his sizeable physical frame to bully opposition scrum-halves means he’s been a poor fit with Sale’s backline which thrives exclusively on quick ball. Even in the twilight of his career it is clear Phillips can still play at the top level but he’s just an ill-fit with this current Sharks team. Lou Reed – F Left the club by mutual consent on Wednesday. Nothing more than a panic buy following Juandre Kruger’s u-turn. As a signing, hard to see it as anything other than a waste. Denny Solomona – A A natural try-scorer (five tries in his first five appearances and four in his last two) and a player whose aerial ability and pace out-wide has brought dynamism and a much-needed focal point to the Sale attacking setup, Solomona’s conversion to rugby union has been, at least on the pitch, seamless. Rob Webber – B A broken arm in his first appearance ruined the end of Webber’s 2016, but the ex-Bath hooker has been in sublime form since. Powerful scrummaging and increasingly imposing ball-carrying has helped bring the ballast missing from the beginning of the season back to Sale’s Monster Pack ™ whilst concerns about Webber’s throwing accuracy have been quelled by a series of consistent set-piece showings. Now if only he could jackal like Tommy Taylor.. Follow The Shark Tank on Twitter for more news, analysis and opinions on all things Sale Sharks. Enjoyed reading The Shark Tank over the last two-and-a-half years? If you would like to continue to support The Shark Tank please consider donating to its Patreon page. |
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