Sale Sharks captain Dave Seymour insists the prospect of qualifying for the European Champions Cup drove them to a 55-12 victory over Exeter Chiefs, and not the opportunity to impress England coach Andy Farrell.
telegraph
The desire to play European Champions Cup rugby next season, rather than to impress watching England backs coach Andy Farrell, proved the biggest motivating factor for Sale Sharks, according to captain Dave Seymour.
Steve Diamond’s men ran in eight tries to record their biggest Premiership win in six years and secure a first ever victory at Sandy Park.
Danny Cipriani and Michael Paterson, England-qualified New Zealand-born lock, will have been among those who caught Farrell’s eye ahead of the summer tour to New Zealand.
However, guaranteeing a sixth-place finish and a spot in Europe’s top flight competition next season was the sweetest outcome for Sale, after they spent last year fighting relegation.
“There are definitely a few guys who are staking a claim for an England place, but no one really spoke about that before the game,” said Seymour, who scored one of Sale’s tries, with the others coming from Sam Tuitupou (2), Paterson, Tom Arscott, Dwayne Peel, Tom Brady and Andrei Ostrikov.
It’s been quite a turn around in Sale Sharks this season, they ended in 10th spot last season and at the moment they are comfortably in 6th position. At the end of last Premiership they had 35 points from 22 games, only won 7 and drew 1, this season from 20 games they have 56 points having won 12 games. With only two rounds left they are far enough ahead of the 7th team to be guaranteed at least 6th spot, depending on how last two rounds results go they could climb to 5th or even in a best case scenario for them end as high as 3rd!