Sale Sharks: Cobus Wiese signs & Rob Webber is back on short-term deal
- Published
Rob Webber won 16 caps for England between 2012 and 2015
Premiership play-off challengers Sale Sharks have strengthened their squad for the final stage of the 2019-20 season with a double signing.
Sale have re-signed ex-England hooker Rob Webber, 34, who initially announced his intention to retire at the end of the season in February, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.
They have also confirmed the signing of South African flanker Cobus Wiese.
Steve Diamond's Sharks are currently second in the Premiership.
They are 13 points behind runaway leaders Exeter, who are almost guaranteed to finish in the Premiership's top four. But then it looks like a matter of which of the four clubs chasing, Sale, Bristol, Wasps and Bath, currently separated by only five points, take up the other three available places.
"We have brought Rob back in as a precautionary measure," said Diamond.
"He was outstanding for us over four seasons and understands how we play to a tee. As we approach the business end of the season, we don't want to get caught out with a lack of options in our pack.
"Rob will bring a huge amount of experience with him, along with fantastic support and guidance."
Following the announcement of his retirement, Webber had revealed that he was to take up a coaching role with Championship side Jersey Reds, to link up again with one of his old Wasps team-mates Harvey Biljon.
He has now simply delayed that move to finish off the delayed season - four regulation Premiership games and hopefully two more in the play-offs - to extend a 16-year, 300-plus match playing career in which he also played for Leeds Tykes and Bath.
Cobus Wiese takes Sale's total of African players into double figures
Wiese, 23, who can play both in the second row and back row, made his Super Rugby debut with Western Province in 2017, before joining Stormers.
He takes the total of South African players on Sale's staff to 10, alongside Rob, Dan and Jean-Luc Du Preez, Faf de Klerk, Jono Ross, Lood de Jager, Rohan Janse van Rensburg, Akker van der Merwe and Coenie Oosthuizen.
Wiese's previously reported but unconfirmed signing was announced by Sale on Twitter.