{"id":320648,"date":"2025-12-17T09:44:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T09:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/320648\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T09:44:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T09:44:13","slug":"sale-sharks-confirm-signing-of-wales-nicky-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/320648\/","title":{"rendered":"Sale Sharks confirm signing of Wales’ Nicky Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nicky Smith admits that he hopes to spend the best years of his career with Sale Sharks<\/a> after it was confirmed he is moving to the North West on a three-year deal this summer.<\/p>\n

RugbyPass broke the news last week that Wales<\/a> loosehead Smith was leaving Leicester<\/a> Tigers for the Sharks when his contract runs out at the end of the season.<\/p>\n

Smith, who started his career with his hometown club, the Ospreys, moved to Welford Road two years ago and was named in the PREM Rugby Team of the Season earlier this year.<\/p>\n

And he says that the first impression of the Sharks was the ambition of Alex Sanderson, who is also bringing in England<\/a> centre Joe Marchant<\/a> for next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spoke to Alex Sanderson, and I loved how ambitious he was about what the club wants to achieve. It\u2019s really exciting to be joining a team that is so clear about wanting to win things and compete for every trophy.<\/p>\n

Fixture<\/p>\n

Gallagher Premiership<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Northampton <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sale <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an opposition player, Sale<\/a> is always a really tough place to go, and as a forward, you know that you need to front up. I\u2019m looking forward to being part of that team from next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cSale have so many quality international players, especially in the front row so I can\u2019t wait to play and train with those lads because I know that will help my game.<\/p>\n

I feel like I\u2019m playing my best rugby at the moment, but I know I can still improve. Hopefully I\u2019ll have my best years in a Sale shirt,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sharks director of rugby Alex Sanderson points out that Smith has always caused his side problems when they have played against him, and he cannot wait for him to join.<\/p>\n

\u201cNicky has been one of the most aggressive, consistent, high-quality scrummagers in the Prem over the past couple of years.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s caused us a lot of trouble when we\u2019ve played Leicester in that period, and we\u2019ve always felt that we\u2019d love to have him here. He\u2019s quality in the set-piece, but he\u2019s agile and mobile and good around the park too.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe comes with a lot of experience in the Prem and at international level. Our ambitions to compete for trophies and his ambitions to continue to get better and to play in World Cups are aligned.<\/p>\n

\u201cOff the field, we\u2019ve heard nothing but good things about him, so we can\u2019t wait to start working with him,\u201d said Sanderson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nicky Smith admits that he hopes to spend the best years of his career with Sale Sharks after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-320648","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\/320648","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=320648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}