Sharks facing the ‘best side in the world’ on Sunday

Director of Rugby, Steve Diamond says that Sarries are the ‘best side in the world’ and Sale Sharks will face a difficult encounter.  “They are well run, well managed, and well coached, plus they look to be a good set of lads. They win most of their games so it’ll be a tough outing for us. I think, as we are a better side than we were last year, but so are they.

“We’re fortunate we have two Premiership games at home in this stint of games, but we’re only fortunate if we win them. We are playing top opposition, and we usually raise our game for these games.”

The side return to the Aviva Premiership action, lying fifth in the table and face the reigning Aviva Premiership champions.

He said: “We’ve got difficult decisions to make in a couple of positions, there are a few lads who’ve come back from injury so generally we’re in a good position to pick from.

“We’ve had a few people out injured who haven’t played since last season, so they are fresh, we’re three months into the season, and five months to go – we’ve got our best players coming back on form hopefully – Sammy T is back, Rob Webber is back, TJ is fit as is AJ MacGinty, and whilst they haven’t been playing, there have been a few players who have put their hands up.”

Diamond confirmed the latest injury news coming from the side: “Fridge (Eifion) has got an ACL and out for the rest of the season, Kieran Longbottom is a couple of weeks off from coming back, but we are pretty much back to full strength.

“I’m happy with James Flynn coming through, and we’ve got Ross Harrison so there is no need for a replacement .”

He added: “The crowds are up 75% which is great – we’re trying to play an entertaining brand of rugby, just unfortunate with the results, we haven’t played with a fly-half yet! We’ve got a bigger crowd coming on Sunday then we had for Toulon, so hope it should be a good day out.”