Sharks can give favourites a fright

ALEX Sanderson is quality, and that is why he has managed to take Sale to their first Premiership final for 17 years.

- JEREMY GUSCOTT

 

He was always hard-working and honest as a player, and those same qualities have come through in his coaching. Like a lot of coaches, you have to discover whether you can become the No.1, and he has shown he has the right attributes.

It is a big transition going from being a coach with a specific job, like defence, to becoming a manager who picks all his coaches and delegates to them, as well as deciding the playing strategy, and being the main influence in the selection and recruitment of the players at the club. It is about becoming the focal point, because you are accountable for everything – and the buck stops with you.

Sanderson has done it just two and a half years after leaving the hugely successful Saracens coaching team, and reaching the final against his former club at Twickenham on Saturday shows that he has managed to build and expand his coaching skills, despite shouldering the responsibility of becoming a director of rugby.

What is refreshing with Sanderson is his honesty in interviews in reflecting what he has seen, rather than what people want to hear. He’s very clear and straight talking, and those strengths are paying off at Sale in the form of a very tidy squad who play for each other.

The mark of Saracens is that despite the loss of coaches of the calibre of Sanderson, and relegation to the Championship, they have managed to rebuild so successfully. It shows the quality of their organisation under the leadership of director of rugby, Mark McCall.