{"id":155720,"date":"2025-09-23T15:46:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T15:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/155720\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T15:46:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T15:46:10","slug":"sale-sharks-opt-for-new-captain-after-ben-currys-two-year-stint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/155720\/","title":{"rendered":"Sale Sharks opt for new captain after Ben Curry’s two-year stint"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Shortly after signing a new three-year deal at Sale<\/a> Sharks, Ernst van Rhyn<\/a> has been named as the club\u2019s captain for the 2025\/26 Gallagher PREM season.<\/p>\n

The tough-tackling South African takes on the armband worn last season by fellow back-row Ben Curry<\/a>, who was awarded an enhanced England<\/a> playing contract earlier this month.<\/p>\n

With Curry\u2019s availability likely to be limited, Sharks<\/a> boss Alex Sanderson had no hesitation in choosing van Rhyn for the job.<\/p>\n

Van Rhyn will lead his side out for the Gallagher PREM curtain raiser on Thursday against Gloucester<\/a> at the CorpAcq Stadium. <\/p>\n

Fixture<\/p>\n

Gallagher Premiership<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sale <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Gloucester <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge privilege and a massive honour to be chosen to be captain of this club,\u201d van Rhyn said. <\/p>\n

\u201cOver the past two years I\u2019ve really enjoyed learning from some of the amazing leaders we\u2019ve got at the club \u2013 guys like Ben Curry, George Ford<\/a>, Rob du Preez and others are fantastic leaders and I\u2019ve tried to take bits from each of them. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s also important for me to keep doing what I\u2019m doing because that\u2019s what has got me to this point. I know this role brings more responsibility, but I feel like I\u2019m ready for that. <\/p>\n

\u201cI pride myself on my ability to lead by example and I know I need to keep on improving my own personal game and working hard as a player. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be a calming presence for the team, and I want to give the players around me confidence. I can\u2019t wait to get going on Thursday.\u201d <\/p>\n

Sanderson added: \u201cErnie made an impression on us straight away with his ability on the field and his leadership off it. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe leads by example, he\u2019s respected by everyone at the club and I have no doubt that he\u2019ll be a fantastic captain for us. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to thank Ben Curry<\/a> for everything he\u2019s done for the team and the club over the past two years. He\u2019s been a brilliant leader for us and I have no doubt he\u2019ll continue to be an absolutely vital part of this team.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shortly after signing a new three-year deal at Sale Sharks, Ernst van Rhyn has been named as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-155720","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}