Sale's killer baby Shark craves scrum domination

Asher Opoku-Fordjour is making a name for himself with club and country but Saracens are a stern test

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Some of English rugby union's biggest names will be front and centre in Salford this evening. Maro Itoje, Jamie George, Ben Earl and Tom Willis all start for Saracens while Tom Curry, George Ford and Luke Cowan-Dickie, among others, will trot out for Sale Sharks. Most 20-year-old props, invited to mix in such lofty company, would be feeling seriously intimidated.

It is increasingly obvious, however, that Asher Opoku-Fordjour is different gravy. As anyone who saw his eye-catching performance against Harlequins last weekend will be aware, his strength and bullocking presence with ball in hand are quite something. "If last week's anything to go by he's tracking well, isn't he?" says Alex Sanderson, the Sharks' director of rugby.

In truth that's putting it mildly. Opoku-Fordjour is already the youngest English prop to win an international cap and his impact in Sale's 43-29 win underlined why. Could that really be a prop bursting through the midfield like an inside-centre and eluding half a dozen would-be tacklers? And subsequently adding a try for good measure? "It went very well, didn't it?" says the powerful 'baby' Shark, chuckling at the memory. "I had a few special moments which I'm going to remember."

Which raises the old question about young players in the wake of a standout performance. Can they replicate it, particularly in a pivotal fixture such as this? The winners will be odds-on to make the playoffs, the losers less so.

Unlike some of this season's more freewheeling Premiership contests, this one has a gritty feel to it.