Joe Marchant has signed for Sale Sharks and set his sights on playing for England at the 2027 Rugby World Cup.<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old outside centre and wing has been ineligible for England selection since joining Stade Francais from Harlequins after the 2023 World Cup in France.<\/p>\n
Steve Borthwick, the England head coach, has been anxious for Marchant to return to the Gallagher Prem and join a deepening pool of versatile back-line options in the national squad.<\/p>\n
Marchant, who has 26 caps, was attracted by the opportunity to play outside of George Ford and in a Sale team ambitious to push on from recent Prem semi-final appearances and win the title.<\/p>\n
Sale have committed to increasing their spending on players under the \u00a36.4million salary cap. Alex Sanderson, the director of rugby, said the club had the capacity to afford five world class players.<\/p>\n
Sale missed out on signing the England forwards Chandler Cunningham-South and George Martin, but they have landed Marchant as a replacement for Rob du Preez, who will leave at the end of this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cJoe has got aspirations to play in the World Cup and that\u2019s part of his motivation for coming back. To do that he needs to play in a championship-competing team and he believes that\u2019s us,\u201d Alex Sanderson, Sale\u2019s director of rugby, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got X Factor on both sides of the ball and in the air. He\u2019s some player. We\u2019ve got Rob leaving as you know and he fills that 13 spot for us next season. How good is he going to look outside George Ford? <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s excited about the space that he\u2019ll be able to get with the fizz and the accuracy of the passes that Fordy\u2019s able to execute. He\u2019s going to be a real threat for us moving forward in those wider channels, that outside break. He brings gas. If you find him with the ball in a bit of space he\u2019s going to make something of it. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I\u2019ve been equally impressed with is his ability to read defensively in those wide channels. It is the most difficult area to defend I reckon because there\u2019s always that space. His ability to read that, reload and then go again is what\u2019s going to supplement our defence which is quite a high-press defence. It\u2019s all about footwork. The people with better feet get in better positions.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s excited about playing outside Fordy and that\u2019s a lot to pull in the conversations we have with players, because of the leader that he is and the form that he\u2019s in. You can build teams around the likes of Fordy and Tom Curry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sanderson said that Sale pulled out of the Cunningham-South deal because he was demanding too much money. <\/p>\n
Sanderson spoke to the England camp about their aspirations for Marchant. Borthwick is known to have wanted him back in the Prem. England will have Ollie Lawrence, Joe Marchant and Tommy Freeman as outside centre options next season, potentially Henry Slade too if he signs a new deal with Exeter Chiefs. <\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s take Joe, or anyone, but part of the interview process is, \u2018What do you want to achieve if you were to come for the next two or three years? Because of the calibre of players we\u2019re looking to sign, most of it is around international honours and World Cups,\u201d Sanderson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I\u2019ve got to align what we can provide for Joe in this instance with what his ambitions are and I want him to get there because if he\u2019s getting there and playing well, he has to be playing well for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Curry was accused of being a \u201cbully\u201d following an alleged tunnel altercation with Felipe Contepomi, the Argentina head coach, after England\u2019s victory over the Pumas. An investigation is underway but Sale have had no indications that Curry will be in trouble and he is set to play against Exeter Chiefs on Friday.<\/p>\n
Sanderson branded the \u201cbully\u201d label as \u201claughable and ridiculous\u201d and said that it \u201cdoesn\u2019t reflect the man he is\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Marchant has signed for Sale Sharks and set his sights on playing for England at the 2027…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-284694","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\/284694","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=284694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}