Alex Sanderson has revealed why he won’t dare fire up Manu Tuilagi before the England star takes on his old club Leicester.
Sale are 80 minutes from their first Premiership final since 2006 but will need Tuilagi at his best to subdue the reigning champions.
“They’re going to be frothing at the mouth, steam coming out of their ears, fire and brimstone,” admitted Sharks boss Sanderson. “We’ve beaten them twice and I’ve heard through the England camp that they want us, they want to play us. I get that. If somebody beat me twice I’d want them.”
Both sides expect tomorrow’s clash to be a battle - exactly the sort of game Tuilagi relishes.
But Sanderson explained he would not be lighting the wrecking ball centre’s fuse as “the last time I tried to motivate Manu he got sent off!
“What did I say to him? ‘They’re wondering if you’ve still got your bang, Manu’. That was it. It was irretrievable for the rest of the week.
“Afterwards I took him out and said to him, ‘Manu, all week we were saying how we need to be controlled with our physicality. I just felt it was going to happen’.
“His reply was ‘do you know what, I did too’!
“‘How can we better then’? I asked him. “Do we have to say to you, ‘don’t fly in and elbow drop someone’, do we have to be specific or can we have a conversation if we’re starting to both feel it in the week where we just call it out as opposed to let it ride as we did’?”
Three months on Sanderson says Tuilagi seems “really chilled” and “does not need the cord pulling”.
He will be helped by absence of Chris Ashton, who has not been picked by Leicester despite having his red card overturned.
In the 2011 semi-final Tuilagi famously attacked Ashton with a three-punch volley - earning a five-week ban which ruled him out of the final.
