RugbyRebels

SALE SHARKS v HARLEQUINS
Friday 26 December, KO 17:30
CorpAcq Stadium, Salford
Live on TNT Sports

SALE:

15. Joe Carpenter, 14. Tom O’Flaherty, 13. Rob du Preez, 12. Marius Louw, 11. Alex Wills, 10. George Ford, 9. Raffi Quirke; 1. Bevan Rodd, 2. Luke Cowan-Dickie, 3. James Harper, 4. Ben Bamber, 5. Hyron Andrews, 6. Jacques Vermeulen, 7. Ernst van Rhyn ©, 8. Tom Curry.

Replacements:

16. Nathan Jibulu, 17. Si McIntyre, 18. WillGriff John, 19. Tom Burrow, 20. Sam Dugdale, 21. Gus Warr, 22. Rekeiti Ma’asi-White, 23. Gurshwin Wehr.

QUINS:

15. Nick David (79)
14. Rodrigo Isgró (18)
13. Oscar Beard (84)
12. Luke Northmore (89)
11. Cadan Murley (C) (137)
10. Marcus Smith (184)
9. Will Porter (53)
1. Will Hobson (23)
2. Jack Walker (100)
3. Harry Williams (8)
4. Guido Petti Pagadizábal (6)
5. Kieran Treadwell (15)
6. Jack Kenningham (82)
7. Tom Lawday (97)
8. Chandler Cunningham-South (38)

IMPACT PLAYERS:
16. Jack Musk (42)
17. Boris Wenger (7)
18. Pedro Delgado (7)
19. Jonny Green (17)
20. Alex Dombrandt (161)
21. Lucas Friday (8)
22. Jarrod Evans (40)
23. Bryn Bradley (17)

Unavailable: James Chisholm, Stu Townsend, Tyrone Green, Max Green, Simon Kerrod, Jordan Els, Ollie Streeter, Titi Lamositele, Stephan Lewies, Ben Waghorn, Will Evans, Connor Slevin, Fin Baxter, Zach Carr

Carpenter and Ford returning will be huge for Sale (duh…). Both teams coming off the back of poor/woeful performances, will be interesting to see what happens.

Somehow quins leading.

Quins disintegrated after h/t. Thought they competed pretty well up to the break but only one team in it in the 2nd half.

Sale eased through the gears and finished very good winners. Quins are in a heap of trouble.

Weekly message about Quins being a rabble.

Comfortably the worst coached side in the league given the quality they have.

Great to see Raffi looking fit and again showing his value as a back 3 player.

Hoping for another player-led rebellion in January so we can storm our way to the title once more

I don't know how Quins want to play. There's so little shape to them in attack or defence. The tactical game is a complete mess. The seem reliant on giving Marcus as much freedom and hoping that he'll come up with something.

Thought CCS played like a drain - it's going to be hard when you're in such a rabble of a side, but an international quality player needs to be striving to lift standards in that situation, not looking actively part of the problem.

Puja

It's a problem that compounds itself though, isn't it. You can't just have one ball carrier in an entire team. They just lined him up. Unless you are 2016 Billy V you aren't doing anything.

Yeah he did get double or triple tackled a fair bit. Being caught at the back of the scrum by Quirke and driven sideways won't have helped his confidence though at least he didn't go full Nathan Hughes. Managed to actually control the bad situation.

Quins really so need to find a way to get him and Dombrandt playing together in the same time so that they've got more carriers on the pitch. Petti really hasn't thrown his weight around like the aggressive Puma I thought he'd be. Does feel quite flat up front for Quins, almost needs someone to bring some niggle to get them fired up. They could do a lot worse than asking England Women to borrow Louis Deacon for a couple of months to get a hold of that pack.

twitchy wrote: ↑Sat Dec 27, 2025 7:24 am It's a problem that compounds itself though, isn't it. You can't just have one ball carrier in an entire team. They just lined him up. Unless you are 2016 Billy V you aren't doing anything.

Let's face it, Dombrandt (a far more experienced international) added nothing in comparison. The rest of the forwards looked uncompetitive and the lack of a physical 12 leaves the back line with no focal point. They also missed Green's carrying through traffic.

As a neutral, I see a Quins side that needs root and branch change throughout the coaching and playing squad. They are shapeless, spineless and downright disappointing.

twitchy wrote: ↑Sat Dec 27, 2025 7:24 am It's a problem that compounds itself though, isn't it. You can't just have one ball carrier in an entire team. They just lined him up. Unless you are 2016 Billy V you aren't doing anything.

Let's face it, Dombrandt (a far more experienced international) added nothing in comparison. The rest of the forwards looked uncompetitive and the lack of a physical 12 leaves the back line with no focal point. They also missed Green's carrying through traffic.

As a neutral, I see a Quins side that needs root and branch change throughout the coaching and playing squad. They are shapeless, spineless and downright disappointing.

Puja wrote: ↑Sat Dec 27, 2025 4:21 am Thought CCS played like a drain - it's going to be hard when you're in such a rabble of a side, but an international quality player needs to be striving to lift standards in that situation, not looking actively part of the problem.

Puja

He was just about the only forward for Quins trying to change the game and frankly telegraphed to the Sale defence. They desperately need some other people carrying with purpose! Waghorn would make a big difference in the midfield.

Only positive for Quins was more game time for Friday, who again looked sharp.

I’ve said it before but CCS signing a new deal at Quins set off huge alarm bells for me. His development has stalled massively, he’s bounced between lock, 6 and 8 (or bench), his defensive game is still hugely weak, his breakdown work is non existent and Quins barely put him in position to carry a lot and influence the game. He should be doing Willis-esque carrying numbers of 15 carries plus every game but they are so disorganised they rarely get him into the game.

He really should have moved to Sale where their game plan would suit him down to the ground.

twitchy wrote: ↑Sat Dec 27, 2025 7:24 am It's a problem that compounds itself though, isn't it. You can't just have one ball carrier in an entire team. They just lined him up. Unless you are 2016 Billy V you aren't doing anything.

Wasn't just the carrying though - was lacklustre and listless at the breakdown and made several poor mistakes in defence. A young player's obviously allowed a bad game, but that was a really bad one.

Puja

On a side note, did it feel pretty low rent to anyone else watching tempest having to run up and down clearing the fire work boxes (or what ever they were) before they could kick off. I just got this vibe of under an u-12's school game where the ref is also the geography teacher, not a televised elite premiership match.

I think it was Christophe Ridley (and Adam Jones) and not Tempest who were clearing the leftover equipment but completely agree.

Captainhaircut wrote: ↑Sat Dec 27, 2025 10:00 am I’ve said it before but CCS signing a new deal at Quins set off huge alarm bells for me. His development has stalled massively, he’s bounced between lock, 6 and 8 (or bench), his defensive game is still hugely weak, his breakdown work is non existent and Quins barely put him in position to carry a lot and influence the game. He should be doing Willis-esque carrying numbers of 15 carries plus every game but they are so disorganised they rarely get him into the game.

He really should have moved to Sale where their game plan would suit him down to the ground.

His versatility is a massive strength, particularly with how international benches are stacking up. Positional specialisation limits more than enables currently. At least with the current head coach who shifted Martin and Chessum between lock and backrow when he was at Tigers.

I can understand him turning down Sale and Sanderson, particularly with how Sanderson conducted himself afterwards. That being said he could have come to Tigers had a similar experience to Sale and stayed within easy reach of London of which he's apparently a fan.