Alex Sanderson

Sanderson has ability to make Sharks big fish | Jeremy Guscott

THERE is a temptation to think that any new director of rugby, like Alex Sanderson at , will have all the time he needs to get everything he wants to across.

The reality is that it rarely happens. For instance, his former coaching colleague at , Paul Gustard, had only been at Harlequins for one and a half seasons as head of rugby before he left this week.

Most new coaches do not know how long they have, because there are so many moving parts to the job. They inherit a culture, which is very often linked to the length of time the previous coach was at the club, and with Steve Diamond that was a long footprint.

They also usually inherit a coaching group, and however much they think they know about their new colleagues, they will not know the reality of working with them – and the same is true the other way round.

Sanderson has been part of a very successful club with an incredible set up, and there is a good chance that if Saracens win promotion back in the , they will soon be challenging for titles again. That's why the pull for Sanderson to go back to his old club and make a difference must have been overwhelming, because my gut instinct is that to leave a club as successful as Saracens for another which won its one and only Premiership title 14 years ago must have been a long, hard decision.

The unknowns are whether owner Simon Orange told him he will get three or four years, regardless of results, or one year. It also depends on if he was promised that he will get what he wants in terms of new coaching and playing personnel, or told to do the best with those already on the books.

It seems inevitable that the main motivation is the desire on Sanderson's part to test himself and discover whether he can be a successful number one. The question is always whether a good number two makes a good number one?

From what I've seen and heard of Alex Sanderson, and based on a couple of conversations I've had with him, he's very genuine. He speaks in an honest, straightforward way, and he has similar values about the way in which a pro rugby player should train and play.

When you hear Sanderson commentating during matches, he is very clear and honest in his summarising of his own team, as well as the opposition, in a similar way to 's .

He is also a great believer in maximising talent by working hard at making improvements – and any player who does not buy into that ambition is unlikely to be part of 's future.

Sanderson was a big part of the mentoring system at Saracens where the coaches asked young players how they could help to make them a better person, and a better rugby player, because the two go together – although the person bit comes first. He will take a lot of the basics and fundamentals that have worked at Saracens and will apply them to Sale, but at the same time he will keep parts of the club's culture from not only the Diamond era, but also stretching back as far as Philippe Saint-Andre, that work.

“The question is always whether a good number two makes a good number one?”

I think that Sanderson will be successful, but a lot will depend on how much his job has changed from the hands-on forwards/defence coach that he has been so good at during his time at Saracens.

Selecting the team is one of the biggest changes in Sanderson's job going from assistant to being the number one.

Another big decision if, like him, you are a new director of rugby responsible for everything to do with rugby at the club, is how active you will be in coaching. Every club has its different playing management model, and if Sanderson has taken on a director of rugby role which is still involved mainly in coaching the squad, then there will not be much change.

However, if he's more of an organiser, who has big distractions like what to do with recruitment, or the academy, it is a different role. If you look at a club like , those roles are divided between Stuart Hooper – who is the director of rugby and runs the rugby department, playing squads, medical, conditioning, analysis and recruitment team – and Neal Hatley, who is head coach and in the main looking after the affairs of the first team.

If Sanderson's new role at Sale is combining the responsibilities of the director of rugby and head coach, then that is a big transformation – and a very big job in terms of workload. But while that might be overwhelming for some individuals, others just take to it.

What Sanderson knows from his experience at Saracens is that the coaches and players at Sale have to come together to achieve a winning culture. He has got genuine talent in his squad with players of the international quality of Tom Curry, Faf de Klerk and , as well as finishers like Marland Yarde and Denny Solomona, and also stalwarts like Josh Beaumont.

Having been at Saracens during their growth period under Brendan Venter, the large number of South Africans in the Sale squad will not be new to him – and he will have learned so much, not only during that period, but after Mark McCall took over, about not only building success, but sustaining it.

For instance, he knows the importance of having senior pros like Brad Barritt as linchpins, and also the challenge of having your own production line of academy talent, so that at Saracens others are following in the footsteps of and Owen Farrell.

There is a great pool of talent in the North-West, with its football and rugby league traditions, as well as the history of Lancashire and Yorkshire as successful Rugby Union regions in the past, and the continued presence of some strong schools.

Much will depend on whether Sanderson can make that part of the country great again in Rugby Union terms. At the moment Sale's attendances are pretty modest, but if he is successful the crowds will come.

Manchester is a big business hub in which there is plenty of brainpower and ambition, and my feeling is that if the new Sale regime backs Alex Sanderson to do the rugby job, and ensure that they put the support around him to do everything else, then it can work.

To make the massive personal and professional commitment switch that he has worthwhile, you would imagine that Sanderson, over the next few years, has to achieve top four consistency in the Premiership, with European Cup qualification also a given.

Sanderson is a forwards coach, and it's interesting that at Saracens most of the superstars, like Itoje, Mako and , and Jamie George, are in the pack.

Their success has been built on an immense, interchangeable front five, and although the backline has not been outwardly scary, with Farrell as the main distributor, Barritt running hard and straight, and Alex Goode ducking and diving, their consistency and accuracy made them very effective.

Saracens' success did not come overnight, and it was built piece by piece on hard work until virtually every player was pushing for international honours.

Alex Sanderson has to find a similar formula at Sale, and it would be a great story if he can go back to his roots in Manchester and turn them into a title-winning club.