Steve Diamond, the Director of Rugby of the Aviva Premiership Rugby Football Union club the Sale Sharks has stated that the club will have no room for excuses for a disappointing season come the 2013-14 season of domestic rugby. The Sharks lost the first seven games of the 2012-13 campaign before recovering in the end to finish the season ahead of the Worcester Warriors and the London Welsh.
Andy Powell, the number eight for the Aviva Premiership Rugby Football Union side the Sale Sharks is still hopeful of being able to extend his contract with the club beyond the end of the current campaign. Although injuries and illness have limited Powell to making just 12 appearances for the club, the 31 year old still produced a man of the match performance in the club’s win against Saracens FC in the semi finals of the Anglo Welsh Cup.
Henry Thomas, who plays at prop for the Aviva Premiership Rugby Football Union club the Sale Sharks, has spoken of his frustration at being injured during a time when The Sharks endured their worst run in the Premiership for years, and he was unable to help the side.
He has only made two appearances for the relegation battlers of this season’s Premiership but was ruled out after an injury, and now he is fit again and ready to return to action, hoping to turn the season around for the club.
Eifion Lewis Roberts, the prop for the Aviva Premiership Rugby Football Union club the Sale Sharks could be slammed with a ban of two years after testing positive for the use of a performance enhancing drugs during his stint with the previous club Toulon last June.
According to the hugely French newspaper L’Equipe, Lewis Roberts tested positive for not only one, but two drugs, morphine and pseudoephedrine and his urine B-sample also returned a positive result when random dope tests were conducted on the players during the Top 14 final clash between Toulouse and Toulon.
John Mitchell, the Director of Rugby of the Aviva Premiership Rugby Union club the Sale Sharks has insisted that his side just wasn’t good enough and deserved their nine try loss to the French powerhouses Toulon in their Heineken Cup fixture over the weekend.
Although they conceded just three points to the overpowering Toulon side in the first thirty minutes of the game, The Sharks went into the break on the back foot after Toulon had scored through Frederik Michalak and Jean-Charles Orioli.
It is a well known adage from times gone by: Form is temporary, class is permanent. Perhaps, two clubs from the British Isles that should know and believe this adage by heart are the Aviva Premiership Rugby Union club the Sale Sharks and the Welsh side the Cardiff Blues. Times are desperate for both these clubs, especially for the Premiership club.
Hendre Fourie, the flanker for the England national team and the Aviva Premiership Rugby Union side the Sale Sharks will have to endure an agonizing wait for 6 weeks after which, he will know if he can continue with the game or if he has to draw a line on his professional career.
The flanker has already undergone two major operations and still, his shoulder was troubling him and after undergoing a minor surgery last week, the club doctors have asked him not to put any pressure on it at all for the time being.
Aviva Premiership Rugby Union side the Sale Sharks have given the 28 year old Australian full back to finally make his move to the Premiership after snapping him up on a long term contract in the wake of his proposed move to the fellow Premiership side the Northampton Saints falling through amidst concerns over his fitness.
The full back had been struggling with constant wrist and groin injuries during the Super 15 season and The Saints believed that he would not be able to cope with the physical demands of European rugby.
Bryan Redpath, the manager of the Aviva Premiership side the Sale Sharks has sounded out a warning to the senior members of his side ahead of the start of the new domestic rugby season in England.
According to Redpath, the senior players in his side must lift their games if they want to be a part of the long term plans of the manager or face the axe. The side from Salford has failed to reach the lofty heights that they scaled back in the 2005/2006 season when they lifted the prestigious Aviva Premiership title, or the Guinness Premiership, as it was known at that time.
Iain Thornley has re-joined his former side Wigan Rugby Football Club, popularly known as the Wigan Warriors of the Super League from the Aviva Premiership side the Sale Sharks, it has been announced and has signed a deal that will keep him at the club from Manchester till the end of the 2015 season.
The 20 year old Thornley was a product of the Wigan Warriors youth academy before he decided to change codes in 2010 and join the Aviva Premiership side.