Season Preview 2011-2012

By Whaley Shark
September 1 2011

 As I gaze into my crystal ball and try and work out what the season holds for us, what do I see? Fog everywhere, with unfamiliar players in Sale shirts glimpsed through the swirling mists, and Sixways looming ever larger. The Whaley Shark offers this short preview of the season….. 

Brilliant prophecy number one- it is going to be tough at the beginning. Having lost so many players to the World Cup, with Captain Sam still sorting out a visa, and with so many squad changes over the summer, I think it will be getting on towards Christmas before we start to see our true potential. In the first batch of Premiership games, we are away at Worcester, Wasps and Quins, and at home to Irish, Gloucester and Saints. Five of these games are played before the end of the World Cup pool stages, and none of them looks very easy. So I think we will be much nearer the bottom of the table than the top at this point in the season, and would be pleasantly surprised with any more than ten points from those matches.

Then we have a dose of LV= action, which I think will be used to integrate World Cup returners into the squad and, the weekend after the World Cup final, it’s back to the Prem for Tigers at home, then Sarries away, so I don’t see much reason for optimism there.

Alternating doses of Amlin and Premiership see us through the depths of winter, and that’s where I’d hope to see us start to make progress. With home games against Exeter, Falcons and Worcester, I’d hope to see us gelling, winning decently and climbing up the table. Then we’ll start to lose players again, to the Six Nations. Although we only play two AP games in the Six Nations period, those are home games against Worcester and Wasps, which isn’t ideal because, at full strength, you’d fancy our chances of winning both. In the final AP matches, we have three home games and two away, perhaps the only small favour the fixtures list has done us, at home to Sarries, Bath and Quins, and away to Falcons and Gloucester, so you’d hope we’d do OK in those.

And overall, what does this mean? To my mind, much will depend on others, many of whom face similar World Cup problems to us. If one of the ‘lower half’ sides becomes anchored to the bottom of the table early on (and it isn’t us!), then we might gain confidence and start to play to the potential which I think is there. If we do get stuck in twelfth, then it’s going to be a long, long slog to pull clear. So I think getting some points in our first games, and at least staying in the pack, is really important. Later on, we’ll get opportunities to make progress and I think, if everything goes well for us, a respectable mid-table finish is quite possible. The thing I’d dearly love to avoid is the horrible relegation cat-fight. If we can achieve that, and play in the style we have seen little glimpses of, then I will actually be a reasonably happy camper. To do that, we’re going to need spirit, and the willingness to scrap like Hell for a losing bonus point in an away match on a cold, rainy afternoon in November. I am cautiously optimistic we do indeed have that spirit, so bring it on! And where do I think we’ll finish? Eighth, plus or minus two, depending on injuries and the amount of good or bad luck we get.