Sale Sharks v Saracens: Tom Roebuck and Sean Maitland add tartan tinge to Twickenham Premiership final showdown

A glimpse of Scotland wingers past and future could be on display at Twickenham on Saturday when Sale Sharks take on Saracens in the Gallagher Premiership final.

Sean Maitland is aiming for a third Premiership title with Saracens. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Tom Roebuck, on Gregor Townsend’s radar according to Sale’s director of rugby Alex Sanderson, will be in direct opposition to Sean Maitland, Sarries’ 53-times capped veteran. Roebuck is uncapped but finds himself at the centre of an international tug-of-war. Born in Inverness but schooled in Chester and the Wirral, the 22-year-old played age-grade rugby for England and scored two tries against Scotland in an under-18 international in 2019. England U18s were then under the charge of Jim Mallinder who is now Scottish Rugby’s performance director and Mallinder could be a useful middle man as Townsend vies for the player with his England counterpart Steve Borthwick. “Scotland have been knocking and Tom has had a call from Steve (Borthwick), rightly so, because he wants to keep his options open, regarding back-three selection,” Sanderson said this week.

Roebuck was called up by Borthwick’s predecessor, Eddie Jones, last October for England’s training camp in Jersey, but that was far as it went, with Henry Arundell, Anthony Watson, Freddie Steward, Max Malins and Ollie Hassell-Collins all seemingly ahead of him in the pecking order. The path to a full Scotland cap looks equally daunting with Townsend’s Rugby World Cup training squad boasting high-calibre back-three options Stuart Hogg, Ollie Smith, Darcy Graham, Duhan van der Merwe, Kyle Steyn and the versatile Blair Kinghorn. Roebuck, unsurprisingly, is keeping his options open but with eight tries for Sale this season it is no surprise that he is catching the eye. “I’ve not really made too much of a decision about it because I haven’t had to yet,” he said. “I would love to play international rugby.”

Maitland, meanwhile, has seen and done it all. He was recalled by Scotland for this year’s Six Nations but never saw any action and was then left out of the World Cup training squad. His performance against Northampton in the Premiership semi-final proved that at 34 there is still plenty left in the tank as his first-half try double helped Saracens to a 38-15 win, although Saints were left more than a little aggrieved that Maitland hadn’t been carded for clattering into George Furbank during an early aerial collision. Maitland this week signed a one-year contract extension with Saracens to take his association with the London club into an eighth season and is aiming for a third Premiership title. Fellow Scots Duncan Taylor and Callum Hunter-Hill will be on the bench for Sarries at Twickenham, with the former poised to make his final appearance for the club. There is a also Scottish interest among the Sale replacements in the form of hooker Ewan Ashman, who will move to Edinburgh in the summer.

Sale, who had a pep talk from Sir Alex Ferguson this week, have not played in the final for 17 years and will look to summon the spirit of 2006 when a team boasting the talents of Jason White, Jason Robinson, Mark Cueto and Sebastien Chabal mauled Leicester 45-20 for their sole Premiership triumph. Saracens, by contrast, have reached eight Premiership finals and are going for their sixth title.

The match starts at 3pm and is live on STV and BT Sport.