Top two meet in the Gallagher Premiership

League Leaders Sale Sharks welcome fellow high flyers Bath to the AJ Bell Stadium as they look to extend their lead at the top of the Gallagher Premiership table. 

The match will see two star tens face off in George Ford and league newcomer Finn Russell under the lights in Salford.

Sale go into the match off the back of three wins in a row against Gloucester, Bristol Bears and Newcastle Falcons.

Alex Sanderson’s side have only suffered defeat once this season at the hands of Exeter Chiefs and look on course for another title tilt this time around, after finishing runners-up last term.

Bath on the other hand are coming off two massive derby day victories over Gloucester and Bristol Bears.

These derby day delights have buoyed the already optimistic blue, black and white fans as they seek to finish in the top four for the first time since 2020.

Bath’s two losses of the season came at the hands of the two midland sides, Leicester Tigers and Northampton Saints.

This is Bath’s second season under Johann Van Graan and there are already clear signs of improvement and real excitement of what they can achieve.

This week’s trip to Sale will be their toughest test to date and Van Graan will admit himself he doesn’t have the strongest lineup out to take on the test.

After a bruising one point win over Bristol Bears last weekend, Bath have decided to rotate a large amount of their squad for their Friday night trip up north.

Van Graan has made 12 changes to last week’s starting 15 with no place in the 23 for last year’s player of the season Ollie Lawrence.

Backs Ben Spencer and Cameron Redpath drop to the bench while Joe Cokansiga and Will Muir don’t make the trip at all.

In the pack Beno Obano, Will Stuart, Charlie Ewels, Miles Reid and Sam Underhill all drop out of the matchday 23 entirely.

Bath still have real assets in their team despite the wholesale changes with the likes of Russell, Max Ojomoh, Jaco Coetzee and Tom De Glanville.

Despite arriving this week from Montpellier, Elliot Stooke doesn’t make his second debut for the Blue, Black and Whites.

Sale on the other hand only make three changes from their 40-22 win over Newcastle Falcons last weekend.

One of the changes will see Luke Cowan-Dickie, who arrived in the summer from Exeter Chiefs, make his first Sale Sharks start after coming off the bench last weekend.

Sale’s other two changes see Ford return to the side at ten with Sam James dropping to the bench and Nick Schonert replace James Harper, who also drops the Sharks’ bench.

Sanderson’s side got bad news through the week as their England International Tom Curry was ruled out for the season due to a hip injury.

Sale’s Director of Rugby will be hoping his side put in a performance in front of a nearly packed out AJ Bell Stadium, which makes the fans forget about Curry’s season ending injury.

Russell against Ford is the matchup everyone will be keeping an eye on but there are tasty head-to-heads across the park for this top of the table clash.

Matt Gallagher will be tasked with keeping the league’s top try scorer Arron Reed quiet while GJ Van Velze, who is captaining Bath for the first time, will be up against England’s very own Jonny Hill at set piece time.

The round seven encounter kicks-off at 7.45pm at the AJ Bell Stadium on Friday and you can keep across all the action on Prost International’s channels.

Sale Sharks XV:

15. Joe Carpenter, 14. Tom Roebuck, 13. Rob Du Preez, 12. Sam Bedlow, 11. Arron Reed, 10. George Ford, 9. Gus Warr; 1. Bevan Rodd, 2. Luke Cowan-Dickie, 3. Nick Schonert, 4. Cobus Weise, 5. Jonny Hill, 6. Ernst van Rhyn, 7. Ben Curry, 8. Dan du Preez

Replacements: 

16. Agustin Creevy, 17. Si McIntyre, 18. James Harper, 19. Josh Beaumont, 20. Sam Dugdale, 21. Nye Thomas, 22. Sam James, 23. Tom O’Flaherty

Bath XV:

15. Tom De Glanville, 14. Ruaridh McConnochie, 13. Max Ojomoh 12. Will Butt 11. Matt Gallagher 10. Finn Russell 9. Louis Schreuder 1. Thomas Du Toit 2. Niall Annett 3. Johannes Jonker 4. Josh McNally 5. GJ Van Velze 6. Ewan Richards 7. Chris Cloete 8. Jaco Coetzee

Replacements:

16. Tom Dunn 17. Juan Schoeman 18. Archie Griffin 19. Fergus Lee-Warner 20. Nahum Merigan 21. Ben Spencer 22. Orlando Bailey 23. Cameron Redpath