Sanderson has ability to make Sharks big fish

THERE is a temptation to think that any new director of rugby, like Alex Sanderson at Sale Sharks, will have all the time he needs to get everything he wants to across.

- JEREMY GUSCOTT

The reality is that it rarely happens. For instance, his former coaching colleague at Saracens, Paul Gustard, had only been at Harlequins for one and a half seasons as head of rugby before he left this week.

Most new coaches do not know how long they have, because there are so many moving parts to the job. They inherit a culture, which is very often linked to the length of time the previous coach was at the club, and with Steve Diamond that was a long footprint.

They also usually inherit a coaching group, and however much they think they know about their new colleagues, they will not know the reality of working with them – and the same is true the other way round.

Sanderson has been part of a very successful club with an incredible setup, and there is a good chance that if Saracens win promotion back in the Premiership, they will soon be challenging for titles again. That’s why the pull for Sanderson to go back to his old club and make a difference must have been overwhelming because my gut instinct is that to leave a club as successful as Saracens for another which won its one and only Premiership title 14 years ago must have been a long, hard decision.

The unknowns are whether owner Simon Orange told him he will get three or four years, regardless of results, or one year. It also depends on if he was promised that he will get what he wants in terms of new coaching and playing personnel, or told to do the best with those already on the books.

It seems inevitable that the main motivation is the desire on Sanderson’s part to test himself and discover whether he can be a successful number one. The question is always whether a good number two makes a good number one?