The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Chris Jones
By CheadleEnder
February 25 2004

There has been little for Sale Shark fans to celebrate both on and off the field in the past few weeks. None of our match reporters could bring themselves to put fingers to keyboards after the drubbing the team receive at the hands of Northampton Saints.

None of our match reporters could bring themselves to put fingers to keyboards after the drubbing the team receive at the hands of Northampton Saints so any masochists who wish to revisit the even can do so at the BBC website. Mike Bradley's report in the Stockport Express is also worth a read - I don't know if Mike writes his own headlines but Saints and Sinners seemed very well chosen! Jos Baxendale in his column offers no excuses for the performance on Saturday and admits "we were absolutely dreadful" - curiously he goes on to say "a defeat like that has been on the cards for at least the last couple of weeks".

The loss of Steve Diamond to Saracens and the breaking up of his successful and popular coaching partnership with Jim Mallinder has upset many fans. This is compounded by the knowledge that many first team players are out of contract at the end of this season.  There has been much in the way of speculation and gossip but little hard news to report.  Rumour has linked Philippe Saint-Andre with a possible move to Sale Sharks should his application for the Welsh coaching job fail but his lack of hard success in previous coaching roles has done little to excite Sale fans.

More heartening news was reported in the Stockport Express today.  Mike Bradley's exclusive interview with Neils de Vos suggests that some good news could be announced in the next 10 days or so.  The picture painted by Neils does not appear as bleak as the one the supporters have been seeing. Neils has asked that we remain patient for a few more weeks but I suspect much will depend on the performance on the field on Friday night when we meet Saracens in the quarter-final of the Powergen Cup.

This is a must win game for us.  It represents our last remaining route into Europe for next year and is our last chance to salvage something from this season.  There may be some permutation of wild card play-off spot but it would take a better brain than mine to work out the complications of that system! Unfortunately Saracens seem to have struck a vein of good form just as we have reached our lowest point for many years.  Fortunately Jason Robinson, Chris Jones and Jason White should all be available for this game though injury to Andrew Sheridan is disappointing news as he has been very influential in the Sale pack this year. I'm sure no one on the team or the coaching staff need reminding that a big, big game is required this week.  As supporters all we can do is get behind them and make as much noise as we possibly can.  At the end of the day, whatever the problems, this is still our team and we need to let them know that we are supporting them.

On a much brighter note - a very big WELL DONE  to Chris Jones on his first full England performance.  His cameo off the bench against Italy was wonderful and to score a try in his first every start for the national team had us all cheering.  The press reports of the game against Scotland were all positive but I particularly liked this in The Independent "Jones, on the other hand, is like nobody on earth; even Dallaglio, who prides himself on possessing all the talents, describes the youngster from Sale as "unique". He can play like Scott Murray in the line-out, and run like Hennie Muller, the grand old "windhond" of Springbok rugby, in the loose. England knew that before they picked him for his first Test start. What they did not know was whether he could mix it with the heavy hitters in the bump-and-grind department. Two wonderful tackles in the space of three seconds at the start of the second half - Taylor first, Chris Paterson second - answered the question."

Jason Robinson's hat trick of tries against Italy also deserve a mention here as does the impact that Jason White had on the Scotland team.  Like many others I didn't understand why he was on the bench for their first game as he certainly made his presence felt in the game once he came on and was instrumental in much of the good defensive work that Scotland put in against England.

Well done to all the International players - and welcome back!  Good luck to Steve Diamond in his new role at Saracens and a big thanks from all the supporters for your hard work over the years.