Premiership: Alex Sanderson says Raffi Quirke is ‘thirsty for England recall’ after starring for Sale against Leicester

David Skippers

Sale Sharks director of rugby believes scrum-half Raffi Quirke can play himself into contention for an England recall after he shone off the bench in his team’s 26-16 victory over Leicester Tigers on Saturday.

The 21-year-old made his first two Test appearances during last year’s Autumn Nations Series but was sidelined for six months due to a torn hamstring.

Impressive comeback

He made his return to action against the Tigers at Welford Road and impressed with a 40-minute cameo in which he set up a try for Tom Curry before also crossing the whitewash himself to help Sale to their fourth win in as many matches in the 2022/23 Premiership campaign.

“He was on fire, wasn’t he? He scored tries, he stopped tries, he set up tries – he was a one-man try machine on both sides of the ball,” said Sanderson.

“I’m chuffed for him. It’s been frustrating for him, the last 12 months, he hasn’t played much for us.

“He’s got big ambitions, hasn’t he? He’s got another couple of games to show what he can do and hopefully get himself into that Autumn Internationals squad, but if Eddie (Jones) is watching that, it’s going to be difficult to keep him out.

“The only way you get to play for your country is to play well consistently for your club, so we’ll try to bring it back and simplify it again.

“Because he got a taste of it this time last year, he’s got more than a taste now, he’s got a thirst and he’s super-keen to showcase what he can do.”

Tom Roebuck and Rob du Preez scored first half tries for Sale but they still trailed 16-12 at half-time thanks to Jasper Wiese’s five-pointer and three Freddie Burns penalties for Leicester.

But the visitors replied with two tries in four minutes in the early stages of the second half to hand the defending champions their first home defeat in the Premiership since June 2021.

Leicester head coach Steve Borthwick said: “It was a pretty hard-fought game for a long time.

“I think we had two teams who were pretty well matched for a large part, probably in the first half we were disappointed we didn’t score more points when we were down there.

“We were disappointed with how easily they scored – to go 16-5 up and then concede immediately was pretty disappointing.

Took their chances

“The period of play that was really the difference in the game was after half-time, where immediately they had a couple of chances and took them well.

“We had two or three people making their first starts of the season today. We always knew that was going to be the case, with the amount of internationals we had away in the summer, and we’ve just got to work through it and keep improving.”

READ MORE: Premiership: Raffi Quirke shines as Sale Sharks power past Leicester Tigers while Gloucester hold off Bath