I'm not referring to the relative amounts of each 'apple' part of either of your recipes (I guess that's down to how damn appley you want 'em!
) but I would suggest that Brican's sauce benefits from being more of a puree which will undoubtedly help with the bind and with the flavour penetration into the paste when mixing.
I've always found that chopped apple, rather than pureed, doesn't bind so well and can lead to a crumblier sausage with 'bits of apple falling out when cut. An apple paste, sauce or puree will overcome this for sure.