MANU TUILAGI INJURY
“He has pulled his groin. It is a grade three, linear, muscle fascia tear of an abductor, which is his groin. He doesn’t need an operation. We think he is going to be back during the Six Nations but not for the first week of it. Grade four is serious, grade two is not so serious so it is somewhere in between. He will be back for the Six Nations. I spoke to him and he said he needed to play and when he is good to play it is up to England regarding selection. He was in the frame before that and I have stated already his intent to keep playing international rugby. As always six weeks is recommended and Manu is saying four.
“I haven’t been told it is a re-occurring injury. He has had issues with his hamstring in the past and it is all connected with the pelvic girdle. There was no indication on the field and he just felt it early in the second half. He is aware of his body that he called over the physio and said something has gone here. When Manu says he needs to come off you know something is wrong. He is a little bit wiser. I am happy that if anyone can stay in that happy frame of mind it is Manu and he is already future-focused about getting back on the field.”
FORM OF ROSS HARRISON
“He has played his best rugby that I have seen since I became DOR. He went two seasons back-to-back going game in, game out. He didn’t miss a game. Longest-serving, hardest working Sale Shark. You then get Simon McIntyre who has been playing really well for us and Bevan Rodd. To some degree he had to bite his lip and swallow his pride which he has done, and he is a proud person. He has just got on with it and consistently worked on his game and been as devoted in the gym as he ever was. He is the first in and last out.
“Then he gets his chance a few weeks back and he takes it. He has found a new lease of life and we have been working quite a lot on energy exchanges. It is not new in sport but there has been quite a lot of research into how you are able to maintain energy on the back of ebbs and flows of positive and negative outcomes. I have made him captain of that. He has been driving it which has helped him, giving him a leadership role, driving emotion. I put his form down to two things; his consistent application and devotion to being the best professional he can be and his newfound lease of life to give energy to everyone around him.”
MORE TO COME FROM THIS GROUP
“We have looked at the Saracens game as a means of how we want to continue in 2024. What we are doing well in 2023, there is a lot of good there. Evidently there is still room to grow and get better. We haven’t anywhere near reached our ceiling and that room to grow comes by way of how clinical we can be when we get those opportunities in the opposition half. We have addressed it and talked about it again. So long as it is on your radar and you are working on it we have got good enough coaches and players here to make sure we do make those improvements down the line. We have seven wins out of nine and we have probably only played our best rugby in two of those games and we are still managing to get wins and finding ways to win.”
SCRUM DOMINANCE
“It has been down to both personnel and tactical changes. Personnel change helps and you have to give time for those personnel like Luke Cowan-Dickie, Agustin Creevy and Asher Opoku-Fordjour to bed in because the scrum is about feel and relationships. So that has happened but also we have been more aware of the pictures the referees want to see, not just going after dominance by wanting to walk over teams which we feel like we could have had on the engagement on occasions. We are creating pictures referees are happy with.”
PREVIEW OF NORTHAMPTON GAME
“They are more physical in defence, they are fourth in the league in terms of defensive collisions. They spend a lot more time in the tackle, in particular off balls off nine. They have always been pretty good on the floor with the personnel they have. They are able to slow ball down to get set in a more connected defensive line. They kick a lot more and a lot longer. They kick the most, looking at the stats, which you wouldn’t think. All that is statistical evidence that supports the opinion that their game is a lot more well-rounded and not just the attacking threat that they were.”
INJURY UPDATES
Usual niggles at this time of year
4 dead legs
Sam Bedlow- really minor MCL, where the hamstring attaches to the knee, if it had been longer week and players had been in earlier in the week probably could have turned him around, a doubt for the weekend
OTHER NEWS
Bevan Rodd has had operation on his toe, out for the Six Nations
Decision to go for posts or for the corner is a combination of feel on the day from the players and meetings before games that look at weather, score scenarios, referee, game model, Al backs feel of the players, strategy and contingency but it is on the players for feel on the day
Replicating the atmosphere and crowd numbers for every game- starts with us and the on-field performances, spectators want to back successful teams who play good rugby, the jeopardy of close finishes brings people back as well, we want to create an environment where people want to keep coming back
From Al’s understanding, there will be extended EPS squad of 50 with core squad of 25 who will be hybridised
Al has been really happy with how the players have come back in after four days off over Christmas period after win over Saracens, “they have been flying”
Professional sport means you cannot enjoy your wins or mourn losses for too long as the next game comes along before you know it
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