'Massive expectation' on World Cup players returning to Gallagher Premiership Rugby - Ben Kay

Ben Kay has said there is "massive expectation” on the returning World Cup players ahead of another action-packed weekend of Gallagher Premiership Rugby.

Up first, live on TNT Sports, Sale Sharks welcome Gloucester as George Ford returns to the AJ Bell Stadium for the first time since England beat Argentina in Paris to win the third-place play-off after an agonising semi-final defeat to eventual winners South Africa.

Kay, a 2003 World Cup winner with England, discussed the importance of quickly reintegrating the international contingent with the club fixtures coming thick and fast.

"I think there's obviously massive expectation for those players coming in, particularly the big-name players," Kay said, live on TNT Sports. "The likes of [Agustin] Creevy coming back, Argentinian, such a huge part of what they achieved.

"George Ford, we know is an on-field coach so his impact within Sale is always going to be huge, but it's actually quite strange.

"The players that were here were probably feeling like they were treading water waiting for those guys to come back, not by their performance, but actually just [because] they were not all together.

"So all that pre-season, guys that are new into the squad, like [Ernst] van Rhyn, he won't know what it's like to play with George Ford. And it's a very different experience to a lot of tens where he's so in command of what they're doing.

"How quickly they can reintegrate them and get everyone on the same page will be very important to the next phase of the season, which is always going to be huge because that's when you really know. When everyone's back together that's when you know how the season's going to go."

Ford was instrumental in England’s group-stage victory over the Pumas before being consigned to a supporting role when Owen Farrell returned to the starting XV.

TNT Sports pundit Austin Healey believes the 30-year-old can use that personal disappointment as motivation to impress for the Sharks after being snubbed by Steve Borthwick.

“I think that the good thing is if the guys that are coming back have lost their last game, they're usually more motivated,” Healey added.

“Those guys like George Ford, who I'm really looking forward to see play tonight because we've not seen him properly since he completely dominated the game against Argentina.

“One of the best performances I've seen from a 10 in years; now is his chance to come back and go, ‘Do you know what? I'm pretty good and I didn’t really get another chance after that’ and he must feel pretty aggrieved.

“He can use tonight to do the same and Creevy exactly the same. And on the flip side of that you've got the Gloucester guys who have seen him play for England, they want to smash him.”

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