Sale Sharks boss Alex Sanderson revealed that “dirty ice” caused most of his squad to come down with a stomach bug leading up to the Champions Cup match against the DHL Stormers. DYLAN JACK reports.
Sale suffered a 31-24 defeat in a thrilling third-round battle in Cape Town on Saturday night.
The English side were without a host of senior players – including South African forwards Cobus Wiese, Ernst van Rhyn and the Du Preez twins – for the game.
Speaking after the match, Sale director of rugby Sanderson said his squad had also come down with a bout of diarrhea during the week.
“I don’t lean into injury and illness as an excuse. We brought everyone we have in the squad, but we could only train with 26 people this week.
“That’s all we’ve got left. Out of those 26, I would say 20 came down with diarrhea and vomiting during the week. Luckily, it was after our training session on Tuesday so they spent the day off in bed.
“For them to turn themselves around and dig as deep as they did, to push a very good Stormers side, I’ve got nothing but pride for this group.”
When pushed on what he believes could have caused such a rapid spread of illness in Sale’s squad, Sanderson gave a surprising answer.
“Ice, apparently. Dirty ice,” Sanderson said.
“I am 100% serious. I am good friends with Andy Edwards, Saru’s head of performance, and I was chatting with him on Wednesday night. He said that it was quite a common thing for touring teams in the summer to suffer from stomach bugs.
“His belief is that it’s in the ice.”
Sanderson said that he expects a couple of players back from injury, including Springbok loose forward Dan du Preez, for their final-round home match against defending champions La Rochelle.
“It’s not an excuse. I’m not leaning into it. We came and battled, we got a bonus point and could’ve won the game,” Sanderson added. “I would rather focus on the positives than what happened during the week.”
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