By Sarah Braide
September 27 2002

Harlequins should have a difficult job overturning Sale at Heywood Road on Friday evening. Leicester and Northampton have already suffered defeats here this season and Quins will not be travelling with a first choice squad, having lost several players though injury. Alex Codling and Paul Burke are hurt and (thankfully for us) Keith Wood is on international duty. Will Greenwood will be absent due to the sad loss of his son.

Quins dealt us a surprise Cup beating last season in a messy match but they have not had a great season so far - their first win came only last Saturday, against London Irish. That was a sign that their team is gelling more and Jim Mallinder is hoping that Sale's gameplan will also start coming together better on Friday:

"We will need to be at our best. We defended very well against Leicester and showed good attacking skills, in patches, against Leeds last week. But we still haven't put together anything like a complete performance."

Jim has named a 23 man squad that includes Bryan Redpath. Redpath resumed training on Wednesday after suffering bruised ribs playing against Leicester and he will hopefully be making his return on Friday - if not, then Nick Walshe will once again take the scrum half reins.

Alex Sanderson will be squaring up against his brother Pat, but the Quins flanker claims that their sibling rivalry will not be boiling over on the pitch:

“We’re the best of mates and we don’t fall out. There’s no edge playing against each other it’s a normal game. We might have a joke when we’re standing next to each other in a line out”, he said.

Kick off is 7.45pm and you might have to turn up early if you want to get a ticket at the gate.

Sale Squad: Vaughan Going, Jason Robinson, Steve Hanley, Mark Cueto, Jos Baxendell, Dan Harris, Mel Deane, Charlie Hodgson, Nick Walshe, Bryan Redpath, Richard Wigglesworth, Kevin Yates, Jim Thorp, Barry Stewart, Andy Titterrell, Charl Marais, Scott Lines, Dean Schofield, Chris Jones, Stuart Pinkerton, Apollo Perelini, Pete Anglesea, Alex Sanderson.

Quins team: Nathan Williams; Matt Moore, Bill Satala, Nick Greenstock, Ben Gollings, David Slemen, Nick Duncombe, Jason Leonard, Tani Fuga, Laurent Gomez, Bill Davison, Karl Rudzki, Ace Tiatia, Pat Sanderson, Tony Diprose.
Replacements: Pablo Cardinali, Bruce Starr, Karl Rudzki, Simon Miall, Luke Sherriff, Nick Duncombe, Rob Jewell.