England have been handed a fresh injury concern with the Six Nations approaching after Tom Curry limped off in the opening quarter of Sale’s impressive win at Harlequins. The 24-year-old flanker has a strained right hamstring and faces a race against time to be fit for the Calcutta Cup fixture against Scotland over the road at Twickenham on 4 February.
Exeter’s Luke Cowan-Dickie also suffered a worrying ankle injury over the weekend and Owen Farrell is awaiting the citing commissioner’s verdict following a contentious high tackle in Gloucester on Friday night. Curry’s availability is therefore a further complication for the new England head coach Steve Borthwick as he looks to his first Six Nations campaign in charge.
Alex Sanderson, Sale’s director of rugby, was understandably keener to dwell on the positives of his side’s latest hard-edged performance but suggested Curry would not playing any more club rugby before the tournament’s opening weekend. “Even if hamstring injuries are the lowest grade they are generally two to three weeks,” said Sanderson. “He will get a scan. He was walking around but it has stiffened up, fingers crossed he will be OK.”
The more encouraging news for Borthwick is that Marcus Smith is due to return for Quins in their European pool game in Paris next weekend, having been sidelined lately with a high ankle sprain. With fitness doubts still hanging over Courtney Lawes and Henry Arundell, Raffi Quirke and Will Stuart all currently out, there will be some relief within England’s new regime that Manu Tuilagi avoided any on-field sanction after a horrible second-half collision which saw the Quins fly-half Tommy Allen carried off on a stretcher.
The England centre received no punishment after referee Wayne Barnes decided the centre’s onrushing charge at a falling Allen did not merit a card of any colour and Sanderson suggested the officials had dealt with the incident correctly. “I thought it was a brilliant way to referee the game nowadays. The guy was coming towards the deck, it was a purely accidental rugby incident as opposed to Manu being reckless. I thought it was Wayne Barnes at his best.”
There could be no argument whatsoever about the effectiveness of Sale’s wet-weather rugby, with the visitors dealing much better with the sodden underfoot conditions and slippery ball. So much rain had fallen prior to kick-off that parts of the A316 outside the ground were flooded and retaining the ball was tricky throughout.
It was certainly not a day to study Quins’ attacking shape in an England context following the elevation of Nick Evans to the national coaching panel, although the home side’s director of rugby Tabai Matson suggested England had made a shrewd appointment. “We’re really excited for him. When our attack’s going well he’s clearly the mastermind behind it. We’ll be filling a big hole.”
Matson also acknowledged Evans could well end up joining England on a permanent basis, while the former All Black fly-half already sounds keen to get started and is hoping to “bring energy” to the English attack. “There’s not a lot of time so systems and structures are not going to change massively,” said Evans. “It will be about bringing energy and belief.”
Sale certainly have a few individuals who should at least merit consideration for a place in Borthwick’s first England squad. Sam and Luke James again showed their unfussy ability while wingers Aaron Reed and O’Flaherty both did their reputations no harm behind a muscular pack not obviously inconvenienced by Curry’s premature departure.
Ben Curry and Simon McIntyre may have struggled to catch Eddie Jones’s eye but the pair were again influential as Sale made the most of Quins’ sluggish start. Tom O’Flaherty splashed over for his side’s first try after 18 minutes before Rob du Preez touched down a chip ahead to add a second and help the Sharks into a 14-6 half-time lead.
The maroon-clad visitors added a third in the 54th minute through their dynamic hooker Akker van der Merwe before Cobus Wiese secured their fourth try from close range early in the final quarter. Tuilagi had a mixed afternoon opposite the similarly hard-hitting André Esterhuizen but the home’s side’s two second-half tries from Joe Marchant and Nick David were scored mostly against the run of play.
It leaves Sale, who stuck 40 points on Leicester in their previous outing, sitting pretty in second position behind Saracens at the top of the league table. Third-placed Quins, in contrast, have lost their last three Premiership games and are 12 points adrift of the Sharks with attention switching to Europe for the next fortnight.
