Sam Dugdale interview: I try to make every single breakdown like WrestleMania

As Alex Sanderson stated this week, Sale Sharks are “revelling in the fact that no one really rates us”, from their lack of representation in teams of the season to the fact the Rugby Football Union did not feature the club in a hastily re-edited advert for ticket sales for the Gallagher Premiership final.

If Sale are the most underrated of the Premiership semi-finalists then flanker Sam Dugdale is their most underrated player, at least outside their Carrington training ground. “Sam Dugdale epitomises our team,” said Sanderson, the Sale director of rugby. “He’s not the most popular of players, he’s not the biggest and does not have a wealth of Hollywood moments, but he has a lot of moments that are significant in matches. He has been part of every squad of every game we have had. He epitomises us.”

Hence it will be Dugdale who will be starting in the back row for their semi-final away to Bath on Saturday ahead of the returning Tom Curry, who has had to settle for a place on the bench in what would be his first appearance since the World Cup. That is reward not just for Dugdale’s outstanding form that saw him win man-of-the-match awards in their recent victories over Saracens and Harlequins, but for his perseverance in bouncing back after being released by an academy player by Sale.

Dugdale still remembers the phone call telling him that he would not be returning to the academy house. “I was a bit like, ‘S--- what do I do now?’” Dugdale tells Telegraph Sport. “I had that call and then I rang a friend (Joe) and asked him if there’s any chance I could get some work with him and he said, ‘You can start tomorrow’. So I got released on Sunday and started work on Monday. If I didn’t do anything I would have been a misery pit. I need to keep active, keep going.”

So the following day he started work at C&C Supplies, a building material supplies company near Preston, driving forklifts and filling one-tonne bags with sand and bark. The hours were brutally long and his rugby training was limited to sessions with Fylde on a Tuesday and Thursday night. “You do really enjoy it when that is your only rugby,” Dugdale says. “You really want to do it. That kept my drive alive.”

But then came another phone call a few months later in October 2020, this time from an unknown number. Sale had experienced a Covid-19 outbreak and then boss Steve Diamond was desperately trying to find enough players to fulfil a fixture against Worcester. “I thought it was a prank call because I didn’t recognise the number,” Dugdale says. “I rang Arron (Reed) here and asked what Dimes’s number was and I was like, ‘Oh s---, that’s actually his number’.”

‘I would rather be doing than being on a building site’

Even though the game was eventually called off, Dugdale had his foot back in the door with a new determination not to be pushed out. “It was a blessing in disguise to get released and get that second chance,” Dugdale says. “A lot of people who get released never get that opportunity. You don’t take anything for granted. When you’re in a hole on a pitch, you think this is what I would rather be doing than being on a building site.”

As Sanderson suggested, Dugdale is not the biggest or strongest back-rower but the 24-year-old resolved that he would never be outworked. “The breakdown is the one area where they [fellow Sale back-rowers] are probably a bit better than me because they are stronger over the ball,” Dugdale says. “So then it is a case of what can I do to make every single breakdown like WrestleMania and slow down their ball so our defence can get set. That’s something I have worked on all season just to be a nause. I never want the opposition to have a rest.”

That is reflected in statistics provided by Opta, which show that Dugdale has made the most tackles per 80 minutes (17.5) and is second for turnovers won behind Harlequins’ Will Evans. He also features in the top five for rucks hit, dominant tackles and jackals. He happily refers to himself as a “workhorse”.

Still, with the Curry twins and a host of South African back-rowers battling for places, Dugdale has had to wait to make his breakthrough, making only a handful of starts in the previous two seasons. Tom Curry’s long-term lay-off gave him that opportunity and he has not looked back.

‘I have to empty myself to make sure I play in the shirt’

“Alex said when they are fit I am the fall guy who drops to the bench or to travelling reserve,” Dugdale said. “Now he is saying I am doing everything right and it is a headache for them. That’s all I can do. They are the big names. If I can keep up with them then I must be doing well.

“I have to empty myself to make sure I play in the shirt again next week. Every game for me is like a final. With the competition here, you have to play out of your skin week in, week out to keep the shirt.”

Now Dugdale is preparing to play in a semi-final for the first time and Joe, the owner of the building yard, will be making the trip down to the Rec to support him. Against a star-studded Bath back row, Dugdale is happy, like Sanderson, to be operating in the shadows.

“It suits me brilliantly,” Dugdale says. “They are big names. They are the ones in the spotlight and I’ll go back about my work like I do week in, week out, which no one really sees. You don’t really notice the work-rate until you get the stats.

“I think a lot of people wrote us off when we were eighth. I don’t think people believe in us now. We are at our best when people write us off.”