Rodd Almighty

ART OR craft, jackaling really is a high-value attribute in the rarefied levels of rugby. And as Bevan Rodd tells us, it was one the Sale Sharks loosehead realised could help raise his playing time.

“When I first came into the Sale team, Ben Curry was out injured and Tom was either with England or injured,” Rodd says. “Akker van der Merwe was starting too, so by the time I came off the bench there were no jacklers in the team. It was one of those things where I thought, ‘If I get good at this, they’ll have to play me’. “Every team wants a jackler, so it’s one of those things I just started doing because if I could get good at it – okay, not master it – then they could say, ‘All right, ten minutes to go, let’s get him on and see if he can get us a turnover.’

“And Pete Anglesea has done a lot of work with me. I’ve started