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.
The Sharks are rooted to the bottom of the Aviva Premiership table, and have failed to even notch a single win in the new season in six attempts. The Blues, on the other hand, are slightly better off, having scraped to wins against Connacht as well as the Newport Gwent Dragons, in the RaboDirect Pro 12. However, their home form can be best described as horrible.
The Blues have returned to their old stomping ground, the Arms Park by popular demand, but the homecoming has definitely not been happy for them as they have lost three out of the four matches they have played there, including a 48-19 humbling by Ulster and 18-3 defeat at the hands of Glasgow.
And the Sale Sharks are hoping to take advantage of this poor run of form of The Blues and get their first win on the board for the season when they go head to head in a Pool 6 encounter of the Heineken Cup. Although this match will hardly decide the final outcome of the group that also contains heavyweights such as Montpellier and Toulon, it holds a special place in the hearts of British rugby fans.
The question of everyone’s mind is that are the Sale Sharks as bad as they have been performing this season? The only way The Sharks can answer this question is by putting up a fight against Then Blues and prove to all that they have just been unlucky.