Sale Sharks vs Exeter Chiefs

Exe team:

15 Luke Arscott
14 Gonzalo Camacho
13 Nic Sestaret
12 Jason Shoemark
11 Matt Jess
10 Gareth Steenson
9 Pat Phibbs
1 Brett Sturgess
2 Neil Clark
3 Hoani Tui
4 Tom Hayes (capt)
5 James Hanks
6 Tom Johnson
7 James Scaysbrook
8 Richard Baxter

16 Simon Alcott
17 Ben Moon
18 Craig Mitchell
19 James Phillips
20 Ben White
21 Haydn Thomas
22 Ignacio Mieres
23 Josh Tatupu

Good to see Nic Sestaret back in the XV, but I fear for his safety - he's quite likely to tackle himself into a bloody pulp against the Sharks' midfield.

Sale team:

Sharks: 15.Rob Miller, 14.Mark Cueto, 13.Johnny Leota, 12.Sam Tuitupou (capt.), 11. Joaquin Tuculet, 10.Nick Macleod, 9.Dwayne Peel, 1.Alasdair Dickinson, 2.Marc Jones, 3.Henry Thomas, 4.Fraser McKenzie, 5.Kearnan Myall, 6.James Gaskell, 7.David Seymour, 8.Andy Powell.

Replacements :16.Tommy Taylor, 17.Vadim Cobilas, 18.Tony Buckley, 19.Richie Vernon, 20.Onosa'i Auva'a. 21.Cillian Willis, 22.Tasesa Lavea, 23.Luther Burrell.

Horribly low number of EQed players in that Sale side - hopefully just a blip.

Must be winter if Steeno is starting again , Mires is pretty awesome

Ha, ha, driver, you could be right - Steeno and Mieres have been interchanged in the last handful of games after Mieres had a run at the start - not much between them tbh, and Dorrian is coming along nicely too in the A games and Amlin

Sharks: 15.Rob Miller, 14.Mark Cueto, 3.Henry Thomas, 5.Kearnan Myall, 6.James Gaskell, 7.David Seymour

Replacements :16.Tommy Taylor, 21.Cillian Willis, 23.Luther Burrell

Are all EQd DaveM (well I think Taylor and Willis are).

Willis is Irish , he's BOD's cousin!

Sheesh where did the Sale scrum halfs go, I thought they had two breaking into the first team? Cliff + 1?

With the AP table as it is:

Team P W D L F A BP PTS
1 Harlequins 8 8 0 0 234 143 2 34
2 Saracens 8 7 0 1 195 122 2 30
3 London Irish 8 3 1 4 221 195 6 20
4 Gloucester 8 4 0 4 167 163 3 19
5 Sale 8 4 0 4 177 201 3 19
6 Northampton 8 4 0 4 177 136 2 18
7 Bath 8 4 0 4 153 169 2 18
8 Wasps 8 4 0 4 148 169 2 18
9 Exeter 8 3 0 5 150 170 5 17
10 Leicester 8 2 1 5 210 231 4 14
11 Worcester 8 2 1 5 110 151 2 12
12 Newcastle 8 1 1 6 130 222 1 7

with just 3 points separating the Exiles in 3rd to the Chiefs in 9th, this is a pivotal game for both Exe and Sale if they have serious pretensions about finishing in the top half of the table. If Exe go down, I can see us hovering around the 8-10th mark for the rest of the season, which would represent a backward step relative to last season

Exe move into third spot in the table, even if it is only temporarily!

I believe 8 EQed player sin the squad matches the record low set by Sarries a couple of years back. Interestingly I think Sarries have about 15 in this week's squad so they've really come on.

I'm sure Sale are doing this in an attempt to stabilise the club and don't want this situation to continue long term, but it's hard to have much sympathy with them for the result last night.

Have a soft spor for the Chiefs myself, always liked how they broke into the Jeff.