Sanderson's vow as Sharks hunt down elusive title

Sale's director of rugby wants to honour silverware promise and convince Ford to stay when he hangs up his boots

- Luke McLaughlin

"How we've failed in the last few years really, really irks me," says Alex Sanderson, Sale's director of rugby. As a matter of fact, he leads the Prem's most consistent club of recent times: the only side to finish in the top four in the past three seasons. Narrowly denied by

Leicester in last season's semifinal and Bath the year before, Owen Farrell and Saracens then had too much for them in the 2023 final at Twickenham: could this, finally, be the Sharks' time?

"We just haven't failed at our best. We've left it too late in the season. I feel like we saw elements of our best in last season's run-in, but it's very difficult to maintain," Sanderson says of those recent near-misses before the visit of Newcastle tonight.

This campaign began with a bonus-point victory against Gloucester before succumbing to the champions on a stormy night in Bath last week. For Sanderson, who prefers his players to be motivated internally rather than by external factors, what would success look like next June?