Future Brighter than Ever at Sale?

After a few quiet summers for Sale on the transfer market, this summer bucked the trend with Dimes bringing in several players. Trying to cover up the losses of Cipriani, Taylor and Cobilas was always going to be a hard task, but as usual, Diamond has scouted well and made some astute signings which were required to help improve on 6th in the table. A lot of credit has to go to Steve Diamond and his men for guaranteeing Champions Cup rugby when others thought they wouldn’t with the limited resources at the club last season. The reward? Being placed in a group with Scarlets, Saracens and Toulon with a chance of reaching the knockout stages and beyond.

Fan favourite Vadim Cobilas was always going to be hard to replace but with the signings of Kieran Longbottom and Halani Aulika, the tighthead position could still be a strength for Sale in a scrum which rarely failed to get the ball back from their own put in. Lawrence Pearce, who was arguably underutilised at Tigers, has been brought in to add some more power in the back row and give the new back division much needed front foot ball. With the retirement of Chris Cusiter at the end of last season at scrum half, Dimes has replaced experience with experience by bringing in Mike Phillips who will compete with Peter Stringer while helping to bring James Mitchell up to Premiership standard.

In recent years, Sale’s back division has been light on numbers but with serious injuries to Mike Haley and Tom Arscott towards the end of last season, signings have been required. Joining Sale in the back three is Paulo Odogwu, a young talent from Leicester who got player of the round at the 7’s group stage, Josh Charnley converting from league to union coming in from Wigan Warriors and Byron Mcguigan, coming in from Exeter hoping to compete with Mike Haley as starting fullback once Mike recovers from his injury. Once fit, the starting positions will be hotly contested with more options available than in previous seasons. The most exciting signing here has to be Josh Charnley, after seeing the results of Jason Robinson expectations will be high and hopes of a prolific try scorer for the season may be pinned on him.

With all three fly-half’s leaving the club at the end of last season replacements needed to be found. AJ Macginty was brought in from Pro12 winners Connacht, hoping to tie down the number 10 shirt. The Irish-born fly-half will join other Sale players TJ Ioane, Johnny Leota and Josh Beaumount on the international stage representing USA. Sale also brought in Dan Mugford who looked very impressive in defeat at Kingston Park. Dan has come in from championship side Nottingham and will have ambitions to take the shirt which should make for an enjoyable battle between the two. Sale have never really had two number 10’s with Danny Cipriani being the out-and-out favourite over Joe Ford and Nick Macleod

Other signings include Rob Webber coming in from Bath, who unfortunately broke his arm in the away defeat to Newcastle last Friday, Curtis Langdon a young ex-London Irish hooker and Lou Reed to partner lineout poacher Bryn Evans in the lock position.

All in all, there is reason for optimism around Sale, with new owners being confirmed just weeks before the new season, as well as old sponsors UKFast being brought back on board. Let’s just hope that the new signings settle in quickly and that we don’t have a repeat of 2012/13 when players struggled to fit in.

#Sale #Phillips #Charnley #Aviva #Macginty