Sale Sharks v Northampton Saints: Big match preview

Competition: Gallagher Premiership, round one

Date and kick-off time: Sunday, October 15, 1.30pm

Venue: Salford Community Stadium

Weather forecast: 9c, sunny

Live television coverage: TNT Sports 1

Referee: Adam Leal

Assistant referees: Neil Chivers, Ryan Collier

TMO: Andrew Jackson

Sale Sharks: Carpenter; Roebuck, S James, Bedlow, O'Flaherty, R du Preez (c), Quirke; McIntyre, Taylor, Schonert; van Rhyn, Hill; JL du Preez, Dugdale, D du Preez.

Replacements: Caine, Harrison, Harper, Wiese, Beaumont, Warr, Curtis, Reed.

Saints: Hendy; Freeman, Dingwall (c), Hutchinson, Ramm; F Smith, James; E Waller, Langdon, Davidson; Moon, Coles; Scott-Young, Pearson, Graham.

Replacements: R Smith, A Waller, Millar-Mills, Lockett, Munga, McParland, Grayson, Seabrook.

Not considered for Saints selection: Juarno Augustus, Callum Braley, George Furbank, Emmanuel Iyogun, Tarek Haffar, Beltus Nonleh, Burger Odendaal, Temo Mayanavanua.

International duty: Courtney Lawes, Lewis Ludlam, Alex Mitchell, Sam Matavesi.

Most recent meeting: Saturday, February 18, 2023: Saints 38 Sale Sharks 34 (Gallagher Premiership)

Sale Sharks director of rugby Alex Sanderson: "You have to hit the ground running. Northampton are a team that can throw lightning bolts and attack unbelievably well so we are going to have to be on our mettle defensively this weekend. We are expecting it to be levels up from what we have been playing at in recent weeks in terms of intensity. Northampton are a good team. All I have been doing is trying to get the lads on this season and rightly so. We did well (last season) and we have done well but it still wasn’t good enough. If you don’t look to improve, you actually go backwards."

Saints head coach Sam Vesty: “Sale are a very good, strong team. They were very good last year. Strong and aggressive defensively. They play a pretty brutal sort of ball-carrying game with a real lively back three and are a counter-attacking team. I think they thoroughly deserved where they finished last year and it's a great test for us. The fixture gods have smiled on us to give us a real test straight off the bat to see where we're at. It's straight off the bat, week one you've to be on your mettle. It's such a good competition. It's 10 strong teams, it's such a good product and we should be very proud of the rugby the Premiership puts out there, week in, week out."

Oval Insights stats: Sale Sharks: Joe Carpenter made a total of 1,249 metres last season – more than any other player. He also scored seven tries, second only to Tom Roebuck in the Sharks’ squad; Gus Warr made more kicks in play than any other player in the 2022/23 season (157). His average kick distance was 26 metres and 15 per cent of his kicks were retained; Sale Sharks boasted the highest rate of tackle dominance in the league last season: 8.1 per cent of their tackles were dominant. The gainline success of their opposition was a league-low 39 per cent. Saints: Alex Moon completed a total of 245 tackles last season – more than any other player in the league; Northampton scored a league-high average of 4.1 tries per 80 minutes last season. However, they also conceded more tries per 80 minutes than any other team (4.3); In the Premiership Rugby Cup this season, George Hendy has made more metres than any other player (412) and has also made 10 clean breaks – just one shy of the leader in the competition.

Tom Vickers’ prediction: Saints have not won at Sale in the league since 2017, having so often been strangled by the home forwards. And when you take a look at the Sharks forwards this Sunday, it’s tough to see the black, green and gold getting enough of the ball to do damage. If Saints do manage to achieve parity in the pack, as ever they can pose real problems, but Sale were runners-up last season and remain formidable. Both sides have plenty of players missing but Saints have so many of their first-choice 15 unavailable that this could be a tough start to the new campaign. Sale Sharks 25 Saints 17.