England duo Tom Curry and Tom Roebuck have returned to the Sale Sharks starting XV that will run out at Welford Road on Saturday to take on Leicester Tigers in the Gallagher Premiership semi-finals.
The pair missed the final round victory over Exeter Chiefs last week – Curry with a hamstring injury and Roebuck with a calf issue – but will start as Sale look to bounce back from a 44-34 defeat to the Tigers a month ago.
Dan du Preez has made way for Curry in the back-row, with the South African dropping to the bench in place of Sam Dugdale.
Roebuck’s replacement last week, Tom O’Flaherty, has also joined the replacements, with Alex Wills out of the squad.
Fixture
Gallagher Premiership
Leicester
Sale
“I’m expecting a big battle,” Sale director of rugby Alex Sanderson said after naming his side.
“They prioritise a lot of the things that we do around physicality and set-piece and we know it’s going to be a really tough game in front of a partisan crowd.
“We’ve been talking about how we manage our mentality through the ups and downs of the game.
“At this stage of the season it’s about being better at the basics and simplifying what we do. The gainline battle and the collisions on both side of the ball are going to be key, as well as the set-piece.
“When we played a few weeks back we got them in the first half but they beat us up in the second. A 60 minute performance this week won’t do – it’s going to have to be 80.
“We’ve earnt the privilege of feeling the pressure at this stage of the season. We know there’s nothing after this if we don’t get the job done so we’re ready.”
Sale Sharks XV
15. Joe Carpenter
14.Tom Roebuck
13. Rob du Preez
12. Rekeiti Ma’asi-White
11. Arron Reed
10. George Ford
9. Raffi Quirke
1. Bevan Rodd
2. Luke Cowan-Dickie
3. Asher Opoku-Fordjour
4. Ernst van Rhyn
5. Jonny Hill
6. Tom Curry
7. Ben Curry (c)
8. JL du Preez
Replacements
16. Tadgh McElroy
17. Si McIntyre
18. WillGriff John
19. Ben Bamber
20. Dan du Preez
21. Gus Warr
22. Luke James
23. Tom O’Flaherty
