By PAUL REES
Sale took their pain to Spain. The day after the Premiership final defeat to Saracens at Twickenham, the players and management flew to Marbella where director of rugby Alex Sanderson issued a rousing rallying cry.
Sanderson had been there 13 years before at the star of his coaching career. He was with Saracens who, after years of making up the numbers, had found an identity and made their first Premiership final, a station along the way rather than the terminus.
They lost to Leicester 33-27, downed by a late Dan Hipkiss try. It was the Tigers’ third title in four years and, ...