Sale Sharks head coach Alex Sanderson has come under fire after his team’s lacklustre season so far, culminating in last weekend’s 85-19 routing by Saracens at home. Sale haven’t won so far this year, with their last win coming against Harlequins 43-17 at home back in December.
Sale’s Struggles This Season
Sale have struggled so far this season, only winning three of the 13 games played. They won two of their first three games, against Gloucester and Newcastle Red Bulls. Then they lost 65-14 to Saracens and went on a five game losing streak, including two one point losses to Leicester and Exeter.
Sale also lost 77-7 to Toulouse in the Champions Cup, as well as those two huge defeats by Saracens are the top three worst defeats ever for Sale. Sale are currently seventh in the table on 22 points.
Sanderson at Sale
Alex Sanderson became Director of Rugby at Sale Sharks since January 2021, and has been in charge of 113 PREM games. He has 66 wins, 43 defeats and four draws. He was instrumental in Saracens’ three European Cup trophies, and five Premiership titles in the 12 years after leaving the Sharks as a player.
However, his role is now in jeopardy as this season has progressed. Since his return from Saracens, Sale have conceded more tries (390) than they have scored (386). This season, their points differential is -95 (344 for – 439 against) and have scored 48 tries so far. After their latest defeat to Saracens, Sanderson cut a dejected figure. Speaking to TNT Sports, he said:
“Clearly, we haven’t found the buttons to press to motivate us for the back end of the season. When everything goes wrong, it is genuinely down to mentality. When there is a little bit wrong in every area, then we haven’t pitched up with the right attitude, physically.
“It felt like we were just surviving. it felt like we were chasing shadows. Motivation, collective purpose fixes a lot of those wholesale problems. I have told them to go home and sleep on it, because we are in tomorrow and we will get some answers off them.”
Although, no decision has been made on Sanderson’s future, the hierarchy at the Sharks may well wait until the end of the season to make any change, but performances like those three massive defeats will not help his cause any.
