Inside Sale’s conflict room: How a Premiership membership prepares for battle with neuroscience, wrestling their coaches, 54 doughnuts and a bulletproof shark

They had enjoyed the symbolic celebration doughnuts, but the time had come to re-focus, so Sale’s squad gathered in front of a giant image of a great white shark in a bulletproof vest, to be briefed about another ‘West Country War’.

Gloucester are the next target in that part of the country, on Saturday afternoon at Kingsholm. The visitors will arrive on a mission to back up their astonishing feat eight days earlier, when they went to Ashton Gate and became the first team to ‘nil’ Bristol in a Premiership game since 2016. The Bears had put a half-century of points on Leicester, away, the previous weekend, but Sale’s revitalised defence stifled them into scoreless submission.

No wonder sweet treats were in order. Having masterminded the shutout, Byron McGuigan faced a sizeable bill at the checkout. ‘In rugby terms, if you nil someone, it’s called a “doughnut”,’ he said. ‘It happened twice in my career as a player and those coaches bought doughnuts so I thought, I have to make sure that I do the same.

‘So, there was a trip to Krispy Kreme. The original glaze are the best, but I ended up getting chocolate ones and loads of different varieties. I bought 54 doughnuts, knowing that a few boys wouldn’t have them, so I ended up having two of my own. The boys enjoyed it and deserved it.’

In a short space of time, 35-year-old McGuigan has had a profound impact on Sale’s title challenge. Before he was installed as defence coach in mid-November, the Sharks had been leaking too many points; 45 at Saracens, 27 in a home win over Gloucester, 47 at Northampton, 40 at Bath, even 37 at Doncaster in the Premiership Cup as they narrowly avoided defeat to their Championship hosts.

But since the Namibia-born former Scotland wing – who made more than 100 appearances for Sale – took over from Jamie Langley, a hefty defeat in Glasgow has been followed by three wins; 29-7 over Racing 92, 28-10 over Exeter and then the 38-0 eclipse of Bristol. Naturally, McGuigan is quick to credit the players who have carried out his orders so effectively.

Recalling the scenes at the final whistle at Ashton Gate, he said: ‘Everyone was so happy around me but on my face it was just, “wow”, in the sense that the boys executed the plan almost to perfection.

‘I track how many consecutive tackles they make and since Leicester, Luke Cowan-Dickie has made 48 tackles and hasn’t missed one – 100 per cent completion. That’s all over the field. If he gets to 50 this weekend, he can raise his bat! A few boys are close to it. Ben Curry got to 45, but he missed one at the weekend so he’s kicking himself. He’s back at five. I’ve got league tables. They enjoy the competitive side of things.’

That competitive edge will be vital today. McGuigan’s priority during the week was to guard against any hint of complacency after their defensive masterpiece against Bristol. So, when Sale’s players sat down for a meeting on the mezzanine level above the gym at their Carrington training base, inherited from Manchester City, the task was to ensure they are not ‘a flash in the pan’.

Mail Sport was granted unprecedented access to observe the meeting, in the company of all senior players, coaches and staff. First to address the squad was kicking coach Warren Spragg, before McGuigan took over. The theme was ‘West Country war’ and the fearsome shark in body armour was the symbol at the centre of the screen on the wall, with tactical pointers ranged around it.

Players sat attentively. Some took notes. There were occasional questions from the floor, but most of the talking came from the men addressing them at the front of the room.

The thrust of the message was about the need to be aggressively assertive. ‘Nuke their exits’ was one section of the briefing. ‘Height battle and scraps’ was another. Clips were played of Gloucester being pressured at the breakdown by Edinburgh in a recent Challenge Cup tie, interspersed with footage of Sale’s own best work in that area. Every now and then, a joke would lighten the mood.

But the primary objective was to create a sense of intensity about the task ahead. McGuigan spelled it out again, telling his players: ‘We’re going to war, boys.’ He identified a key threat in the Gloucester side. His image was displayed on the screen, followed by clips of him in action.

Director of rugby Alex Sanderson stood watching proceedings from one side and largely left it to his assistants, aside from one brief comment. Afterwards, referring to McGuigan, he told Mail Sport: ‘The lads are driving it. We have some mega athletes. You can’t do it without the cattle who love to hit, and we recruit for that. But if a fish stinks, it stinks from the head, and at the moment it’s not stinking. It’s biting. It’s an angry fish – an angry shark!’

Sanderson explained that the logic for promoting McGuigan – who had cut his teeth as a coach with spells at Sandbach, Bowdon, Preston and Rossendale – was that he had only recently retired, which means he has a bond with the players and ‘his game intelligence is second to none’. He praised his long-hours work ethic and how he preaches what he practised, as a combative player. Wrestling with the players during pre-season showed them that McGuigan is still an intense, physical character.

‘He’s unbelievably passionate,’ said Sanderson. ‘There is so much enthusiasm and love of his craft. He wants to be the best defence coach in the world but, first and foremost, he wants us to be the best defensive team. He puts the team first and they can feel that.

‘These things emanate off you; they come through your skin. A neuroscientist said that to me. He works with the special forces and he said that your skin is not the outside of you. When you are sat watching a film, unknowingly, your brain waves and heart rate synchronise with the person you’re sat watching it with. It’s a proven fact.

‘If that is the case for something as simple as watching a film, if you’re trying to breed an energy and excitement about an area of the game, why wouldn’t that transfer from a coach to a player? There is something in the intensity of him which lads latch on to. It is personality and it is catching.’

Defence systems and the challenge of implementing them are a hot topic. England’s struggles in the Autumn Nations Series were blamed in large part on a malfunctioning blitz, after Felix Jones defected last summer and Joe El Abd was forced to inherit a system he doesn’t favour, at short notice. Certain clubs – notably Exeter, who took until December 29 to win their first league game of the season – have opted to shift away from the high-risk, high-reward blitz approach.

McGuigan described Sale on his defensive watch as a ‘line-speed team’, saying: ‘That’s where you put teams under pressure without taking yourself out of the game. There’s no guessing or just flying up aimlessly, then you get beaten with balls in behind. Then there’s a blitz defence, which has to be coached incredibly well, for that not to happen.

‘Blitz is more man-on-man, one-v-one tackles, but we want two-man tackles which means we have to be up together and land together.’

There can be cyclical patterns in terms of how teams defend, as well as how they attack. Addressing that bigger picture, McGuigan added: ‘The trend is to blitz. The Springboks won two World Cups with it. A lot of teams bought into that, but over the last six or seven years, teams are thinking there is a way round this. Two early passes, a bridge (lofted, long pass) and you are down the edge.

‘Back in the day, you couldn’t throw a bridge because everyone would say, “No, it’s a coach-killer”. Now it works because most teams are just flying off the line.

‘Against Bristol, we totally changed our defence system. I think being adaptable is key and not many teams are, at the moment. This week, we have made adjustments again, but our basic principles remain the same.’

When he took on his new role, McGuigan and the Sale squad agreed that ’80 per cent of defence is attitude’. A significant aspect of his job is motivational. No system can be effective without players finding the will to implement it to the max, which in turn requires coaches to press the right buttons at the right time. As someone who emphasises the vital importance of human bonds and care for the players, McGuigan loves this part; finding the right way to light the fires within.

‘We can’t just think it’s going to happen,’ he said. ‘We know Gloucester are now thinking this will be a massive game. It’s easy motivation, at home against a team who looked brilliant last week. So, what motivates us? I have to create that bit of edge. I have to make sure the message is clear. I have to make sure our players know what the opposition’s heartbeat is and how we take it away from them.’

That is certainly what Sale did to Bristol and what they will be striving to do to Gloucester. Ben Curry symbolised the relentless effort and defiant streak which earned the clean sheet at Ashton Gate and the captain explained how he and his fellow Sharks relish manning the barricades.

‘We have a team – especially in the forwards – who want to hit,’ he said. ‘Byron has come in, a few of us have played with him and he’s a great bloke who is very detailed. That just frees you up to go and hit. For a player, that is perfect. Defence can be very simple. Essentially, it is about winning physical contacts more times than the other team.

‘It’s also about making sure everyone is on the same page. It takes weeks to build the trust you need with each other and the system. Byron has been in five or six weeks now, so it doesn’t just happen overnight.’

Sale don’t think they’ve cracked it, but under McGuigan’s dedicated and detailed supervision, the ‘angry sharks’ are circling near the top of the Premiership table again, as they don their armour and gear up for another war in the west.