Sale Sharks Make Changes For Harlequins Clash

Sale Sharks host Harlequins at CorpAcq Stadium in the Gallagher PREM on Sunday after England back-rower Tom Curry withdrew from the squad through illness, forcing Alex Sanderson to change his starting lineup before kickoff.

According to Planet Rugby, Christ Tshiunza moved into the starting back row after Curry's withdrawal, while Sam Dugdale was promoted to the bench. Sale's team otherwise remained unchanged, with Joe Carpenter, George Ford and captain Ernst van Rhyn among the starters.

Sale Sharks had entered the match after a 21-17 win over Saracens at StoneX Stadium, according to the club's matchday guide. The fixture against Harlequins was scheduled for October 11 at 3:00pm at CorpAcq Stadium.

Harlequins arrived after making eight changes following their 48-0 defeat by Gloucester, with Marcus Smith returning for his 198th appearance for the club, according to RugbyPass. Will Porter said the team wanted to respond after criticism of the performance.

"You have a decision to make in those moments whether you’re going to let the outside noise come in and break up as a team or you’re going to come together, use it almost as motivation to move on. We’re very early in the season and looking at our PREM Cup and our preseason games. Those were great building blocks for us, even our performance against Bath the week before; though we didn’t win, we could take a lot of positives away from how we attacked and stuff.

So we can’t just let one week undo 12 or 13 weeks of work. So we understand the result against Gloucester, but again, we’re not going to let it undo weeks and weeks of work, which we’re really confident in.", said Will Porter, Harlequins scrum-half.

Porter also highlighted the team's connection with supporters ahead of the trip to the North-West. RugbyPass reported that Harlequins aimed to recover from their difficult opening results while maintaining their attacking style.

"We owe our fans, who are amazing when it comes to travelling to support us at home games. We owe them a good performance. We want to fire shots and play the Harlequins way, which is an entertaining brand of rugby and is threatening from anywhere.

We’re going up for Sale, fully confident that we can get the result, and we’re going to fire as many shots as we can. And hopefully get the result.", said Will Porter, Harlequins scrum-half.

Porter said the squad was focused on avoiding external pressure after the defeat at Gloucester, which Ugo Monye described as a major setback for the team.

"From a player’s perspective, you try and just stick clear of outside noise, if I must. Obviously, it’s never nice to hear stuff like that, but I think it can be great fuel to use in terms of really getting fired up for this weekend.", said Will Porter, Harlequins scrum-half.

Harlequins' lineup featured George Furbank at full-back, Marcus Smith at fly-half and Cadan Murley as captain, while Sale selected a side including George Ford, Courtney Lawes and Ben Bamber.