By Paul Jones
Tommy Reffell showed Warren Gatland what he could do for Wales at the World Cup this autumn, despite finishing on the losing side as Leicester were beaten by Sale Sharks in a tense Gallagher Premiership semi-final.
Flanker Reffell – who was named in Gatland’s tournament training squad two weeks ago – made three turnovers and pulled off 16 tackles in an impressive personal performance, but still ended up on the wrong side of the 21-13 scoreline.
Sale boss Alex Sanderson hailed George Ford as “a little pocket of calm amid the chaos” after his team reached a first Premiership final for 17 years.
England international fly-half Ford was a dominant presence, guiding Sale home against his former club Leicester in an absorbing play-off clash at a sold-out AJ Bell Stadium.
https://twitter.com/LeicesterTigers/status/1657803526066565123?s=20
Ford, who went off injured in last season’s Premiership final when Leicester beat Saracens – Sale’s opponents at Twickenham on May 27 – kicked three penalties and a conversion.
But he also epitomised Sale’s resilient attitude against a Tigers team that pushed them all the way before going down to a 21-13 defeat.
“They are a special group, these boys. They had to drink deep from the well today,” Sale rugby director Sanderson said.
“They stuck to the task, and George Ford drove that – a little pocket of calm amid the chaos.
“You need to be physically up to the task, you need a heart, you have really got to want it. What more can you ask for?
“I am proud of how they stuck at it and just got better at the basics as the game went on.”
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Sale now face Saracens in pursuit of a Premiership crown that they last claimed when players like Jason Robinson, Charlie Hodgson and Sebastien Chabal ruled the roost.
And for Sanderson that means preparing a team to try and beat a club he spent several successful seasons with as an integral part of Mark McCall’s coaching staff.
Sale, though, look set to be without captain Ben Curry, who was carried off during the first half after suffering a hamstring injury.
Sanderson added: “He will get a scan tomorrow. He is on crutches and he got carried off. We will see tomorrow, but I doubt if he will make the final.
“I spent the major part of my life down there with those guys (at Saracens), but I am so engrained in this here that it feels like I have been here forever. It adds a little bit more spice.”
Wings Tom Roebuck and Arron Reed scored tries for Sale, but Leicester held a 13-10 lead with 24 minutes left before the Ford-inspired Sharks turned things their way.
A battling Leicester performance delivered a second-half try for wing Harry Potter, plus eight points from the boot of 39-year-old Jimmy Gopperth, who was a late replacement for World Cup-winning South African fly-half Handre Pollard.
My first ever Sale Sharks game was a 8-20 loss to Leicester Tigers in October 2012. An 18-year-old George Ford was man of the match for Leicester.
Today I watched from the press box as Sale beat Tigers in a Premiership semi final, Ford man of the match again! pic.twitter.com/4hts0s76PT
— Ben Nurse (@BenNurse8) May 14, 2023
Tigers’ interim head coach Richard Wigglesworth will join the England set-up of his former Leicester boss Steve Borthwick this summer, and a second successive Premiership final appearance proved just beyond the east Midlanders.
Wigglesworth said: “It was a close game, small margins. We just couldn’t find the advantage to tip it in our favour.
“We stuck in the contest, and we can’t fault the spirit and fight in the group.
“I am incredibly proud to have been asked to lead this group. I am so grateful for how they (Leicester) have treated me.”
And on Pollard’s absence, he added: “We only made that call this morning.
“Handre hadn’t trained for the last couple of training days. It was a calf issue, which is incredibly painful, but it can also clear up at a moment’s notice.”
