Sale v Bath: Teams

Sale welcome back Nick Macleod for their Guinness Premiership showdown with Bath at Edgeley Park.

The Welshman returns at full-back with the only other changes from the Sharks' draw with Newcastle positional, James Gaskell moving to lock and Chris Jones switching to number eight.

Fly-half Charlie Hodgson (toe) misses out once again but Sale director of rugby Kingsley Jones is confident Lee Thomas will provide more than adequate cover.

He said: "Charlie stubbed his toe against Leicester and has been struggling.

"On saying that he is in training and once the bruising goes down he will be fine. Lee Thomas however is a good deputy and played well at fly-half for us last week.

"We are looking forward to the game but we know it will be a tough one. Bath always provide good opposition and they are in a false position at the foot of the table.

Improvement

"They have a good squad are well coached and I believe this will be our hardest game so far."

Bath travel north to Edgeley Park searching for their first win of the season following defeats to Gloucester and Wasps.

The West Country side have a poor record in the north west and head coach Steve Meehan is under no illusions about the challenge facing his players.

"If we can show the same amount of improvement between weeks two and three as we did between one and two, then we have got every chance of coming away with the win," he said.

"It's a long season, but we would obviously like to break our duck and that is the intention.

"Sale have got their recipe of rugby and we are a little bit more wise visiting there this year than we were in previous seasons. We may have to change the way we play accordingly.

Sale:15 Nick Macleod, 14 Mark Cueto, 13 Mathew Tait, 12 Chris Bell, 11 Ben Cohen, 10 Lee Thomas, 9 Richard Wigglesworth; 1 Andrew Sheridan, 2 Marc Jones, 3 Eifion Roberts, 4 James Gaskell, 5 Dean Schofield (capt), 6 Luke Abraham, 7 David Seymour, 8 Chris Jones.
Replacements:16 Neil Briggs, 17 Jack Forster, 18 Gavin Kerr, 19 Brent Cockbain, 20 David Tait, 21 Will Cliff, 22 Oriol Ripol, 23 Andy Tuilagi.

Bath: 15 Jack Cuthbert, 14 Joe Maddock, 13 Matt Carraro, 12 Shontayne Hape, 11 Matt Banahan, 10 Nicky Little, 9 Michael Claassens (capt); 1 David Barnes, 2 Lee Mears, 3 Duncan Bell, 4 Peter Short, 5 Danny Grewcock, 6 Jonny Faamatuainu, 7 Julian Salvi, 8 Ben Skirving.
Replacements: 16 Pieter Dixon, 17 David Flatman, 18 Aaron Jarvis, 19 Stuart Hooper, 20 Andy Beattie, 21 Scott Bemand, 22 Ryan Davis, 23 Michael Stephenson.