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Saint-Andre faces selection dilemma

Jenny Dixon
27/ 2/2008

CURRENT internationals could find it hard to reclaim their places in Sharks’ team for this Friday’s match after the side climbed into fourth place in the league.

Owing to a week’s break in the Six Nations, Richard Wigglesworth, Andrew Sheridan, Lionel Faure, Jason White and Rory Lamont will all be available for selection against league strugglers Worcester Warriors.

However, the 14-11 win recorded at Leicester Tigers in the absence of the famous five, poses a selection dilemma for Philippe Saint-Andre.

Sharks and England scrum-half Wigglesworth conceded: "If you win away at Leicester it might be quite hard to change the team.

"I wouldn’t be able to begrudge them if I wasn’t playing because there’s not many teams that win away at Leicester."

However, it would be equally hard to leave out Wigglesworth and his England team-mate Sheridan, who both impressed in their side’s 24-13 win against France.

The 24-year-old number nine scored a try on his first start for England, but Wigglesworth is reluctant to accept the plaudits.

"I don’t think I can take the credit for the try," he said modestly. "The forwards were outstanding and kept the ball for five minutes. I just managed to dive over.

"The forwards were awesome for me: they worked hard, they were up for the game and they were quite dominant, so it was quite an easy job."

He added modestly: "I made a few mistakes in the second half, it wasn’t a perfect performance by me.

"I was playing in a team that was playing very well and just to be part of that was really good and hopefully I can do that again."

Sharks prop Faure was playing for France in Saturday’s tie and witnessed at close-range Wigglesworth’s 83rd-minute try.

While France and England are still in the running for Six Nations’ glory, Scotland, captained by Sharks skipper White suffered another blow to their campaign, a 34-13 loss against Ireland.

White missed the clash, having failed to recover from concussion, but Sharks winger Rory Lamont was involved in the disappointing defeat.

All five Sale internationals are available this weekend for Friday’s game against Worcester.

Judging by the light-hearted mood at the team’s Carrington training ground yesterday (Tuesday), the players’ return and the Leicester victory has boosted Sharks’ morale significantly.

Sharks head coach Kingsley Jones said: "[Since November] we’ve played 15 games and lost two - but for some reason there has been a black cloud around the place for the last few months.

"I don’t understand that. I think we are the best team in the Premiership on current form.

"We’re very happy with where we are and very happy with the way it’s gone.

"The draw in Montpellier and the defeat at London Irish are the two games that we are disappointed with but you are going to have thunderbolts in the season. You’re going to have a defeat you’re not expecting but, at the same time, you’ve got to try and get a win that nobody else was expecting - like we did at Leicester.

"As long as we keep our feet on the ground, and respect Worcester to start with, we can move on from there."