Sale Sharks director of rugby Alex Sanderson has urged his side to front up to the challenge posed by Ospreys in the Heineken Champions Cup on Sunday.

Sale need a victory in their final Pool A clash to book their place in the knockout stage, and Sanderson knows his team need to bounce back from their Round 3 defeat at ASM Clermont Auvergne with a big performance at AJ Bell Stadium.

“We need to win this one to get to the last 16,” he told the club’s website. “We are due a turn in form – we’ve had some really honest, hard conversations this week.”

“We’ve got a lot of our senior players coming back this week. We were missing six or seven of our front loaders last week, and even so we could have beaten them.

“I believe we’re going to push on because we’re training well, the messages are right, we’re having honest conversations and the feeling is good, so yeah, bring them on.”