Sale Sharks

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Template:Infobox esl club Sale Sharks are a professional Rugby Union team who play in England in the Guinness Premiership.

The club is an offshoot of Sale F.C., which is based in Sale, Greater Manchester, but Sharks currently play in Stockport at Edgeley Park, ground sharing with Stockport County F.C..

1 History
2 Current England elite squad
3 Other internationals
4 Former players
5 Club honours
6 External links

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History

The club was founded in 1861 and is one of the oldest clubs in English rugby history. They have throughout their history, been one of the leading rugby union clubs in the North of England.

The club has consistently provided international players and, during the 1930s, had one of its most dominant periods, fielding players of the calibre of Hal Sever (England), Claude Davey and Wilf Wooller (Wales) and Ken Fyfe (Scotland).

During the nineties, despite thrilling displays under Paul Turner, and his successor John Mitchell, both club and ground struggled to keep a grip on the demanding commercial and financial realities of running a professional rugby club.

Sale took 20,000 fans to Twickenham for the 1997 Pilkington Cup Final but this interest quickly faded and the anticipated increased crowds never materialised and relegation from the Premier Division loomed likely until rugby union-playing local businessman Brian Kennedy came to the rescue, late in the 1999-2000 season. Since then, the club has been on a sound financial footing.

Off the field, Peter Deakin was recruited from Warrington Wolves rugby league as Chief Executive to employ the skills he had used with the Bradford Bulls and Saracens and he made an immediate impact in raising the club's profile until hit by the serious illness which claimed his life in February 2003.

Success was not immediate; Sale Sharks finished eleventh and tenth in the 12-strong Premiership table in the first two years of the new Millennium. It took the coaching partnership of two former Sale players, Jim Mallinder and Steve Diamond, to produce a team that were 2002 runners-up and qualified for the Heineken Cup.

Player signings matched the elevated profile of the club. Scotland skipper Bryan Redpath was joined by Stuart Pinkerton, Barry Stewart, Graeme Bond, Jason White and Andrew Sheridan. The club then turned to the wealth of talent, hitherto largely untapped, in Rugby League. Apollo Perelini, known as "The Terminator" for his uncomprimising style, joined Sale Sharks the day after helping St Helens to victory in the Super League Grand Final at Old Trafford and the media had a field day when Jason Robinson, possibly the most exciting wing in the world in either code, moved to Sale from Wigan Warriors.

That year the team also went on to capture the Parker Pen Shield at Oxford's Kassam Stadium, defeating Pontypridd 25-22.

During the close season of 2003, the company Cheshire Sports had been created, with The Sharks moving to share the Stockport County F.C. pitch at Edgeley Park. The all-seater capacity of over ten thousand, the enhanced entertaining facilities and the broadcast-quality floodlights emphasised the potential which Heywood Road could never have provided; however, the club still uses Heywood Road for reserve and under-21 matches.

Part of the process of creating a rugby union team to represent the North West region has been in the development of a strong academy. Through their junior team The Jets, the club has developed many talented home-grown players, including; Steve Hanley, Mark Cueto, Dean Schofield, Chris Jones, Andy Titterrell and Charlie Hodgson.

The early months of 2004 saw the departure of Steve Diamond and later Jim Mallinder, and the arrival of ex-French International and former Gloucester and Bourgoin coach, Philippe St. Andre, as Director of Rugby from the start of the 2004-5 season.

On the field, the international profile has been extended with the addition to the squad of Robert Todd, Sebastien Chabal and Sebastien Bruno.

In the season which followed the Sale Sharks won their second European Challenge Cup at the Kassam Stadium in Oxford, when they beat Pau 3-27. Their other cup was won in 2002 when they beat Pontypridd 22-25. In 2005, they won the same trophy again with a convincing 27-3 victory over French side Pau. Two Charlie Hodgson tries and a try each by Mark Cueto and Andy Titterrell saw Sale end the season in style. The game saw Sale say goodbye to two club legends, Bryan Redpath and Jos Baxendell, who announced their retirement from rugby after the game.

The 2005 British Lions tour to New Zealand included six Sharks players, and with crowds now topping 10000 on a regular basis, Sale Sharks are the North West's most successful and highest profile rugby union club and one of the top sides in Europe

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