REED'S FOCUS ON FORM FOR CLUB AND COUNTRY

DESPITE playing under half of Sale's Premiership minutes in the six-game opening block, Arron Reed, fresh from an international debut for Scotland, has arguably made a bigger impact than anyone for Sharks this season.

- TOM JEFFREYS

The 25-year-old had, in his own words, 'one of my best games in a Sale shirt' in his first game of the season vs Gloucester, was withdrawn after injuring his hip while scoring his second try vs Newcastle, and in the week of being called up to Scotland's autumn squad, travelled down to Sale's defeat vs Bath.

While the weekend's return to The Rec had centred around revenge for last season's Premiership semi-final defeat, the trip represented confronting a personal blemish on an otherwise defining season in Reed's career.

With competition as esteemed as Tom Roebuck and Tom O'Flaherty, there's always going to be one top-class winger missing out in Sale's starting XV, and for that semi-final, it was Reed.

Having earned a first international call up during the Six Nations, playing 17 and starting 14 of Sale's 19 Premiership games and being on the cusp of a debut vs Canada, Reed's club season had ended in disappointment, but a stark conversation and a successful tour has galvanised the Sharks academy product.