George Ford put a smile back on the face of Alex Sanderson and then told his Sale boss to stop beating himself up for the club\u2019s heaviest ever home league defeat.<\/p>\n
Ford scored 17 points as Sharks beat Harlequins 52-33 on Saturday to all but seal Champions Cup qualification and turn the page on last week\u2019s 85-19 \u201cembarrassment\u201d against Saracens.<\/p>\n
The England fly-half admitted even sticking eight tries on Quins could not lessen the pain of the 13 they allowed Sarries at their CorpAcq Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a scar, a proper scar,\u201d he told Planet Rugby. \u201cYou remember games for the good, don\u2019t you? You also remember a few for being real bad. That will always be one of those. It was a horror show.\u201d<\/p>\n
But at the end of a week in which Sanderson took responsibility for the humiliation and faced calls to quit as head coach, Ford insisted the blame belonged elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only reason that happened was down to the players and our choice of whether to want to do the tough stuff, the stuff that requires no talent: whether to dig in for each other, for the club, for the coaches, for the owners, for everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all made wrong and poor choices against Sarries<\/a>. Consistently. And that\u2019s why it ended up at 85. I genuinely don\u2019t think it was anything to do with Al and the coaches. In fact, I know it wasn\u2019t. It\u2019s on us as players.\u201d<\/p>\n Scarlets v Bulls: Five takeaways as Handre Pollard and Springbok-laden bench \u2018come up in the clutch\u2019 to complete successful fortnight in Wales<\/a><\/p>\n Ironman likely out for the season<\/p>\n Fuelled by the humiliation, Sale outlasted Quins<\/a> at the Stoop, coming from behind with four unanswered tries in the final quarter. They did so after losing Rob du Preez to a torn hamstring.<\/p>\n The South African centre, nicknamed \u201cIronman\u201d, has started 88 consecutive PREM matches, dating back to the start of 2022. Headed for Bayonne this summer, he is unlikely to play again for the Sharks.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make up for last week, nothing makes up for last week,\u201d Ford said. \u201cI don\u2019t think you ever get over that. What it does is give us a bit of a reference point to hopefully kick on for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t make the play-offs, we just got knocked out of Europe. So the motivation of actually achieving something this year is not there. We had to strip it back and find personal motivation: who we want to be as a team, the improvements we can make day to day and week to week to put us in a better position for next season.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got some great players coming in the summer [Courtney Lawes, Joe Marchant, Alex Lozowski, Nicky Smith] and we don\u2019t want to wait for them to arrive before we start again. We want to get a jump start on that.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then there\u2019s the lads leaving. That could potentially be Rob\u2019s last game for us, coming off as he did with a hamstring. He\u2019s done amazing things for this club. For someone like him, you don\u2019t want to go out with a whimper, losing every week.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018We talked about it\u2019 \u2013 Saracens boss issues play-off rallying cry after Leicester Tigers victory<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cSome of the upper hierarchy need to do the honourable thing\u201d<\/p>\n While Sale put an 11-point buffer between them and the final Champions Cup spot, Quins are four games from missing out. For a club boasting England stars Marcus Smith, Cadan Murley, Alex Dombrandt and Chandler Cunningham-South, that is some under-achievement.<\/p>\n Boos rang out around the Stoop as Sale pulled clear in the final quarter. Many supporters left before the end, some taking to social media to voice dissatisfaction.<\/p>\n