Welcome back to the Salford Community Stadium for the first home game of what we hope – and expect – will be successful season for this club and this group of players. We’ve worked so hard during pre-season and I promise you, this is a restless bunch.

They’re restless because they know the opportunity that this group of young, aspiring internationals, mixed with seasoned internationals, have got this season to do something really special. Something that they’ll remember. We hope we can give you a season to remember too.

They’re not kids anymore and they don’t want to waste the opportunity they have. These lads could take off this season and that’s our challenge. It makes me as excited as I’ve ever been going into a new season that we know will bring with it all the usual ups and downs. The Gallagher Premiership was so tight last year with jeopardy everywhere you looked and I reckon it’ll be as close, if not closer, this year.

We start with the visit of Harlequins and on behalf of everyone here at Sale Sharks I’d like to welcome Billy Millard, his staff and his players to Manchester. We know they’re going to pose a big threat to us all over the pitch in all kinds of ways. They’re the best team on transition and a lot of their game is geared around that. They’ve got massive turnover threat through Dombrandt and Evans at the breakdown and that feeds a lot of their attack. What we have seen when we’ve watched the warm-up games is that they’ve added a layer of decision making where they don’t overplay. That’s the kind of stuff that turns a good team into a really, really good team.

We finished last season really well because we changed our mindset. We realised that we’d probably been a bit too pragmatic in the early part of the season and we put more focus on our attack. That was good, but I don’t think that level will be good enough this time around. That’s just the point at which we looked to start pre-season. But we’ve seen a load of growth in the lads in the last couple of months and we’re excited to get going. It’s a long pre-season and we know we have to be better because the game always moves on.

I don’t think I’d ever want us to try and beat Quins at their own game because we’ve got our own DNA. We all know what that is. Now our challenge, and it’s one the lads are excited about, is to layer more attacking threat on top of that. Our mindset this season is to be on the front foot.

Helping us get on the front foot will be three new lads who I know you’ll welcome with open arms and loud voices. You all know about Will Addison but I think you’re going to see a better version of Will than the one who left us in 2018. He’s had some injuries but as a result he has got this wider perspective of the game. He plays like a top-class player but thinks like a coach and he’s got some really forward-thinking ideas around skill development. We know he has that emotional tie to this place and this club but that’s not why he’s here. He’s here because he’s a top player and we think we’ll see the best version of Will this season.

Waisea Nayacalevu is the captain of Fiji so that tells you he has character and leadership skills. He’s not loud but when he speaks, people listen and we’re already seeing players, particularly some of the young lads, really defer to him after training sessions. On the field we hope he’ll give us a different dynamic in attack because he has an ability to make an outside break, and he loves an offload. We were all gutted to lose Manu at the end of last season but Wais is going a long way towards filling that void. 

Our third new arrival won’t be involved this weekend but he’s big enough to fill any void! Le Roux Roets has been struggling with a couple of little niggles and it’ll take him a little bit of time to get up to speed with the demands of the Premiership. When he does though, he’s going to be a massive asset in every way. We can’t wait to see him go.

I love my rugby and as I said, I’m so excited about this new season. As a DoR I’m looking forward to seeing the distance travelled: seeing if the reflections that we had off the back of last season and the work we’ve done comes to fruition. I want to see that because it’s vindication of the time and the effort we’ve all been putting in.

There’s always a surprise package and as a fan I’m excited to see who that’s going to be. I can’t wait to see what the league throws up because last year was as good as any season I can remember. It was brilliant and brutal and I loved the ride.

It all begins again on Sunday and I know we can count on you to throw everything you have behind the lads once again.

See you at the game,

Al

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