Halifax-born teenager excited to head north as Sarries look for first win in competition

Ali Crossdale is looking forward to heading back up north when Saracens continue their Anglo-Welsh Cup campaign at Sale Sharks on Friday.

The 19-year-old is originally from Halifax, and also spent time in the Sharks academy earlier in his career.

Crossdale made his first appearance for Sarries in the 30-29 cup defeat at home to Harlequins on Sunday.

And the fullback hopes his return to the northern part of the country brings about a win for the Men in Black.

“It’s me going back up north, so that will be nice and hopefully we can put right what we didn’t get right against Harlequins and get a good win,” Crossdale told the club website.

Against Harlequins in their opening pool stage game in the competition, an unconverted try from Tom Whitely put Saracens 26-5 up in the 52nd minute at Allianz Park.

Prior to that, Jack Nay and Nathan Earle had also crossed for scores for Sarries, while Max Malins kicked 11 points from the tee.

Despite Malins slotting a 72nd minute penalty, the hosts went on to lose, with Quins scoring a converted try in the 82nd minute to snatch the victory.

Crossdale admits it was disappointing to lose in such fashion and knows there are areas to work on ahead of the Sale clash, but says there were positives too.

“We showed a lot of character to stick in there and defended really well at times. It’s always hard to lose at the final whistle, but we tried our best,” he added.

“There’s lot to work on for next week, but we’ll go up to Sale and try to fix what we got wrong at the end.”

The defeat saw Crossdale gain his first cap for Saracens, and the youngster hopes this year’s Anglo-Welsh Cup brings a few more appearances for the north Londoners.

Despite the result, though, the teenage back was pleased to make his bow for Sarries by playing alongside others with whom he had come through the youth system with the north Londoners.

“It was an awesome crowd, an awesome atmosphere and it was awesome to get to play at Allianz Park, even in the circumstances,” said Crossdale.

“It would have been ideal if we had won, but it was awesome to get out there and I really enjoyed it.”