Marchant aims for England recall after returning to Premiership with Sale

Joe Marchant has returned to the Premiership by joining Sale and says he is aiming to force his way back into the England side, with Sale's season opener at home to Bristol scheduled for Saturday, 26 September.

Marchant spent three years with Paris-based Stade Francais after the 2023 Rugby World Cup and is still reacclimatising to English rugby and life. He has 26 England caps, the most recent coming in the third-place play-off win over Argentina at the 2023 World Cup, and was Steve Borthwick's first-choice outside centre throughout that tournament, starting every match bar the pool-stage thrashing of Chile. Leaving the World Cup for a new life in Paris, Marchant recalled the quick turnaround: "It was a bit of a strange one, everyone was going home and for me Paris was my new home," the 30-year-old remembers. "We finished on the Saturday with the boys [England] and I had the team photo with Stade on the Tuesday, so it was just an on-to-the-next mentality."

He admits the switch to France altered his everyday language and led to a few training slip-ups. "I've had a couple of near slip-ups, which I didn't tell any of the lads, where I'm just saying the things you'd say there," he said. "You can feel the words coming out wrong. For a high ball in France, you'd say 'j'ai', meaning 'I have'. So I have had to style that out and turn it into 'Joe's'."

Marchant also credits the Top 14 with developing his physical and communicative game. He says he is a more assertive and communicative player than the one who left Harlequins and added: "It is such an intense league. Every weekend, there's someone who is at least 150kg who always sits out of a five man line-out, and you just have to get ready for that coming every week." Stade Francais twice reached the post-season play-offs in Marchant's three seasons in Paris.

England head coach Steve Borthwick has told Marchant — alongside fellow Sale new signing Courtney Lawes — to prove themselves in the Premiership before any return to Test selection. "Steve and I have had a couple of chats here and there. Nothing crazy, but just a couple of chats," Marchant said. "That was the main message. Get back on the field and play and see where we go. I want to play for England, that's what I want to do. I'm proud to have played for England and I don't want it to be my last time at that World Cup. I want to play again."

Marchant said his move to Stade Francais was influenced by conversations around his England future under Eddie Jones before the 2022 Autumn Internationals. "There were those conversations just before the Autumn Internationals [in 2022] that I wasn't fitting the mould and I wasn't going to play in the World Cup," he said. "The Stade offer was a good offer that, on the back of the England stuff, seemed like the right thing to do. Then three weeks later, Eddie wasn't with England any more." He added that Borthwick brought him back into the England fold in 2023 after an "honest chat": "They were all really positive. From that, we just got pretty aligned. He knew what he wanted from me and how to get it. For me, I just felt like it was really good clarity on what I need to do to get into that England shirt."

Described in the piece as "a rangy runner with an excellent nose for an angle or support line and an impressive aerial game," Marchant arrives at Sale as the club seeks to play with more width following significant squad investment. Sale will also hope the signings give Marchant and Lawes a platform to press their claims a year out from the next Rugby World Cup.

Marchant said his domestic calendar will include a trip to Newcastle and noted a family connection there: his wife Hollie is the daughter of former Newcastle and England striker Alan Shearer. "Yeah, maybe," he said when asked if his father-in-law would attend at the Corpacq Stadium. "I think the Newcastle game in October will probably be more likely. It's a bit closer to Newcastle. Hopefully he's supporting Sale. If he's not, that's not really 'play on'." Sale begin their campaign at home to Bristol on Saturday, 26 September, with the away match at Newcastle Red Bulls also highlighted by Marchant as an early date of note.