Sale Sharks and Connacht Rugby meet for the third time this season in the European Rugby Challenge Cup on Friday night, when Pool 3 winners Sale host runners-up Connacht at AJ Bell Stadium, live on BT Sport and beIN SPORTS from 19:45 GMT. The English side won fewer matches in Pool 3, but topped the table courtesy of six bonus points as well as two victories over the Irish province. Pool positions Sale Sharks: 1st, Pool 3, 22 points Connacht Rugby: 2nd, Pool 3, 22 points Head-to-head record Sale Sharks wins: 5 Draw: 0 Connacht Rugby wins: 1 2018/19 points-scorers Sale Sharks: Faf de Klerk (45), Chris Ashton (35), Will Cliff (20) Connacht Rugby: Jack Carty (27), Kyle Godwin (20), Conor Fitzgerald (15), Matt Healy (15) https://twitter.com/SaleSharksRugby/status/1111251794439667713 Key quotes

Jack Carty (Connacht): “It’s obviously going to be a massive test, but Friday night was really good preparation in terms of how physical Benetton were. Last year, against Gloucester, we probably didn’t show up and the previous year it went down to the wire in Grenoble, so we’ve been there before.”
Denny Solomona (Sale): “The analysis team has done a great job and picked up things when we’ve played them and how they’ve been playing throughout the year to this week. I think the boys are well prepared after a short turnaround and well rested as well, so I think they are raring to go.”

Team news

USA fly-half AJ MacGinty returns to the Sale Sharks XV to face his former club, while No.8 Josh Beaumont, flanker Tom Curry and scrum-half Faf de Klerk all start.
Ireland international centre Bundee Aki comes into the Connacht XV, while hooker Tom McCartney captains the side. Kieran Marmion and Jack Carty form the half-back duo.

Match stats

This will be the seventh meeting between Sale Sharks and Connacht Rugby, with the Gallagher Premiership club winning five of the previous six, although both sides won their home matches when they met in the pool stage this season.
Sale and Connacht met in the semi-finals of the 2004/05 Challenge Cup, with the Sharks winning both legs before going on to defeat Pau in the final.
This is Connacht’s fourth Challenge Cup campaign in a row in which they have reached the knockout stage, but they have lost all three of their most recent three quarter-finals.
Sale missed an average of just 15 tackles per game in the pool stage, fewer than any other club.
Sale conceded just 12 tries and no side conceded fewer.
Connacht’s James Connolly made more tackles (63) than any player who qualified for the knockout stage.
No one scored more tries than Chris Ashton (7) in the pool stage. He now has 53 career tries in Europe and is the only player with 50+ tries in EPCR’s top two competitions.