Gus Warr Interview: There is more to Sale's No.9 than “trying to be an annoying little player”
Warr has been a key cog in Alex Sanderson's side over the last two seasons
©Sale Sharks
In an interview with The Times’ Will Kelleher this week, Alex Sanderson and Steve Diamond laid it all out on the table.
“It matters to us”.
Of course, the close friends were discussing this Friday’s ‘northern derby’ with Diamond’s Newcastle Falcons visiting Sanderson’s Sale Sharks.
Both are unequivocally proud of their roots and for some of Sale’s players in particular, Diamond played an integral role in their development in the north.
During his nine-year tenure as Director of Rugby of the Sharks, the likes of the Curry brothers - Tom and Ben - Joe Carpenter, Arron Reed et al were handed their debuts by Diamond as well as livewire scrum-half Gus Warr.
The 25-year-old - who played his junior rugby at North-West clubs Winnington Park RFC and Bowdon RFC - made his first Premiership appearance under Diamond back in 2018 but since then, he has made the No.9 jersey his own after featuring heavily for Sale in the last two seasons.
From a young age, Warr understood a combination of hard work, determination and resilience - both on and off the pitch - was going to be essential if he was to make a name for himself in the game.
“My parents drilled it into me when I was at boarding school [the Dollar Academy, in Central Scotland],” Warr told TRU. “I had two great house parents that were very big on education and making sure you nail all that stuff.
“The fact that I have had to work harder than others to get in the position I have and I have had to bide my time, which I don’t think has done me wrong, has taught me a lot of lessons about who I am, about rugby in general and that not everything just comes at once. Everybody is on a different journey.”
Warr did have to wait for his chance to become a regular starter for his boyhood club but with frequent injuries to Raffi Quirke, he has taken his opportunity and has been Sanderson’s first-choice scrum-half since the start of the 2022/23 campaign.
While serious about his ambitions on the pitch, Warr has also been spoken about as someone who is up for a laugh and is a joker within the club.
The 25-year-old admits that, at times, he loves to bring a lighter mood to the group, but delving a little deeper, his analytical side has been less explored.
As a history graduate from the University of Manchester with a keen interest in modern history and politics, particularly 19th and 20th Century Russia, it developed Warr’s ability to analyse and extract important details.
He said: “I have been branded this stereotype of player, but if you add up all the pieces, there is a lot more thought process going into it instead of it being just me trying to be an annoying little player.
“A lot of it is thought out, and everything is read up on on how you gain edges. I am a student of the game, watching everything that is on telly and by doing this, you have taken in half the stuff before you preview another team.
“Say we are playing Bath in three weeks time and they play tomorrow night on TV, I would watch that game. My mind is very analytical, looking at what they do, how they play the game, and how it will be relevant to how they play against us.”
This will be key to exploiting the weaknesses of Friday night’s visitors Newcastle who have failed to win in the Premiership since March 2023, finishing bottom of the division for the past two seasons.
Yet, the old adage is that form goes out the window on derby day.
Warr - who scored in last week’s 31-27 victory over Gloucester - will need to be on his game again to ensure Sale don’t allow complacency to creep in.
He said: “We have got to focus on what we do well. We know we are a good side. We know when we get it right, we are dangerous, threatening, and physical. A lot of it will be seeing what we can do to implement ourselves.
“Last season we took some pretty nasty injuries over a long consecutive run of games which dented the squad, physically, and in terms of confidence.
“But it wasn’t the worst thing either, as it provided the opportunity for a lot of the young lads to have the chance for minutes at the top level and to experience what it takes to wear the Sale shirt and what it takes to win.”
And Warr’s boss echoed the views of his scrum-half in terms of not taking Newcastle lightly on Friday night.
“It is a bit like fight club, you don’t talk about it,” Sanderson said. “You can manifest complacency if you talk about it.
“Off the back of a good performance and result [v Gloucester], that is the time teams take a collective breath and lose that edge and fear you need. We don’t have that this weekend.
“We have got a lot of lads coming back in, watching those other boys play at the weekend, knowing they have got to step up.”
Due to a few injuries in the opening three weeks of the season, Sharks have been forced into early rotation but now some big names, including Tom Curry, will be returning to the field to take on Newcastle.
Sanderson added: “The whole Du Preez clan and a Curry compliment will be involved in the squad this weekend.
“That is a really exciting thing for the first time in a year and a half.”
And while faces are coming back, Warr continues to be an ever-present.
The Scotland international - who earned his first cap in the summer - is hoping to be part of Gregor Townsend’s plans for November Tests against Fiji, Portugal, Australia and South Africa but for now, the only thing that matters is claiming derby bragging rights in the north.
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