Ben Curry relishing ‘unbelievable test’ against Toulouse as Sale Sharks captain hails South African teammate and looks to ‘put best foot forward’ for England

Ross Heppenstall
Ben Curry scored a wonderful try for Sale Sharks over the weekend.

Ben Curry scored a wonderful try for Sale Sharks over the weekend.

Captain Ben Curry admits Sale Sharks face a mountainous task when they take on holders Toulouse in the last 16 of the Investec Champions Cup.

The England flanker enjoyed an outstanding game yesterday as Alex Sanderson’s men thumped Toulon 33-7 to qualify for the knockout stages.

He scored a delightful second-half try as Sale secured the bonus-point win they needed to progress, but Curry knows they now face the toughest possible opponents.

Toulouse away

Toulouse have swept all before them in Europe this season, winning four from four and scoring 225 points in the process – more than any other team.

During the 2022/23 season, Sale lost comprehensively home and away in pool games against Toulouse and 26-year-old Curry admitted: “Playing them in the last 16 is an unbelievable test.

“The last time we played them, we let ourselves down, probably similar to the Stormers game last week.

“But there is a long time between now and when we go to Toulouse – we’ve got Bath at home next weekend which could put us in the top four.

“Then we’ve got six weeks to get ourselves right for Toulouse, so it’s really exciting, but there’s a lot of rugby in between.”

Sale led just 7-0 against Toulon at half-time following a clinical try from England winger Tom Roebuck.

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But they cut loose after the break with a devastating flurry of tries which erased the memory of their 40-0 pasting against the Stormers in South Africa eight days earlier.

Curry and Bevan Rodd scored before Tom O’Flaherty’s long-range score clinched the bonus-point win while Roebuck bagged his second late on.

Curry was one of seven members of Steve Borthwick’s Six Nations squad to start against Toulon along with Roebuck, George Ford, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Asher Opoku-Fordjour and Tom Curry.

“It was a great test on the back of last week,” continued Curry, who was named player of the match.

“If you watch the Stormers game, the first 25 minutes were very similar in that we were dominant but came with nothing.

“They scored two lightning bolt tries which got to us, so the message all week going into the Toulon game was ‘scoreboard pressure doesn’t matter, for us it’s about staying engaged’.

“Enjoy the moment, good or bad, and throw yourself into the next thing and I think that prepared us really well for this game.

“It turned out that way and it’s easy to get frustrated but we came out in the second half and there was an unbelievable buy-in from the whole 23 players.”

Du Preez praise

South African centre Rob du Preez marked his 150th appearance for Sale with a fine display in what was, remarkably, his 66th consecutive start.

“Rob is unbelievable and definitely doesn’t get enough credit for the work he does,” said Curry.

“He’s probably one of the most underrated players in the Premiership isn’t he?

“I don’t think that’s an exaggeration and the work he does for the team. I can’t speak highly enough of him.”

Curry showcased his footballing skills with a brilliant try which saw him collect a pass from Du Preez and send a deft grubber kick behind the Toulon defence on the edge of the 22 before racing to ground the ball.

It was an exhilarating score but the openside, who with twin brother Tom had a trial at Manchester City as a youngster, claimed he would not watch the clip of his try on repeat.

“Obviously it was a nice moment but that’s not going to win you matches,” stated Curry.

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“As a flanker, I pride myself on other things but to be fair I did work on those kind of plays when I was 10.

“When our dad played, me and Tom would be there for literally a few hours before and after, just kicking to each other.

“And we’ve played a lot of football, so maybe that helps. But I wouldn’t say I will be taking Fordy’s position any time soon!”

Sale’s seven-strong England contingent head to Girona for a training camp tomorrow as they step up their preparations for their Six Nations opener against Ireland in Dublin on February 1.

After England lost three of their four autumn internationals, the pressure is on Borthwick to deliver a successful campaign.

“Obviously it was a disappointing autumn,” admitted Curry.

“It’s easy to say you’ve brushed it off, but it does kind of feed into everything.

“I have been thinking about it, so I just want to get in there and put my best foot forward.

“I just want to try and enjoy it because you don’t know how long it’s going to last. I just want to enjoy my rugby.”

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