It’ll be interesting to see how former All Blacks coach John Mitchell gets on in his second spell at Sale. On the basis of Friday night’s 21-9 victory over London Irish it’s certainly a decent start for a club who had yet to win a league match this season.

Mitchell has taken over as director of rugby, with Bryan Redpath moving to the role of backs coach. The New Zealander certainly won’t be mollycoddling his charges on the basis of his coaching mantra. He admitted: “I’d like to think that I’m a strong character, but when you are like that you are either seen as a freedom fighter or as a terrorist.”

Mitchell started as a player/coach with Garryowen, worked with the Ireland and England forwards – with a spell at Sale in between – took New Zealand to the 2003 World Cup and has coached at Super 15 level in Australia and South Africa.