Tom Curry and Raffi Quirke Return for Sale Vs Leicester
Tom Curry and Raffi Quirke returned for sale vs leicester on Sunday, giving Sale Sharks a changed look for a 3pm Premiership match against Leicester Tigers. Alex Sanderson made four changes to his XV after the defeat at Gloucester, with Curry back after a calf injury and Quirke back after a hamstring injury.
Luke James Returns
Luke James came back into the starting XV for the first time since November and replaced Marius Louw at outside centre. James Harper came into the front row, while Asher Opoku-Fordjour switched from tighthead to loosehead.
Ernst van Rhyn moved back into the second row to partner Ben Bamber. Van Rhyn, the skipper, was part of a side that also kept Joe Carpenter at full-back and Tom O’Flaherty and Tom Roebuck on the wings.
Curry Back In January
Curry started his first game since the January defeat to Northampton Saints, a clear sign that Sale were willing to reshape the pack and back row for a match against play-off chasing Leicester. Quirke returned at scrum-half with George Ford at fly-half, giving Sale their preferred half-back pairing for a fixture on TNT Sports.
Sale also named a 5-3 split on the bench, which left Sanderson with forwards and backs divided for the final changes around the matchday squad. That selection was the main friction point in the story: four alterations after Gloucester, but two major returns to the side at a time when Leicester were pushing for the play-offs.
Sanderson's Four Changes
The four changes altered several parts of the team at once, from the front row through the centres and into the half-backs. That left Sale with a different balance from the side beaten at Gloucester, and with Curry and Quirke back in place the squad carried more of its established shape into Sunday’s meeting.
For supporters, the immediate read was simple: Sale had more of its regular names available again, and Sanderson used that to adjust the starting XV rather than keep the same side that lost on Friday. The return of Curry and Quirke gave the Sharks a stronger spine for a game that arrived quickly after Gloucester, with the lineup settled before kickoff at 3pm.
