After a long, cold summer it’s with a genuine sense of optimism and excitement that we return to the field for what could and should be a great season to be a Sale Sharks fan! While we’ve tried our best to distract ourselves over the summer with international rugby and the Olympics, unfortunately it’s not quite scratched the itch – so a (hopefully) sunny Salford Sunday should be the perfect tonic. 

Over the summer we’ve had some incredibly exciting new additions join in Waisea Nayacalevu and Le Roux Roets, two international quality players who we can’t wait to see in fully fledged action. We’ve also welcomed back former captain Will Addison returning from a few years at Ulster – many Sharks fans will have exceptionally fond memories of Will, largely him carving up defences and creating highlight reel moments nearly every time he got the ball! 

Adding those additions to the club, managing to keep hold of a great majority of the key players in the squad and it feels like it’s been a sensible and solid summer of recruitment – some exciting additions who can add a bit of extra magic into an already settled team. A special mention too for Josh Beaumont who has a richly deserved testimonial year in the offing, after holding up our second row for large parts of last season and hopefully continuing that great form into this year. 

There’s been a few good pre-season outings against Caldy, Connacht and Newcastle for the squad too – maybe the less said about Connacht the better, but how good to be back at Heywood Road for the Falcons game!  

Similarly it’s, of course, been a rigorous pre-season for the Shark Tank podcasters, warming up vocal chords and analysing kits in un-needed levels of detail. We’ve had a transfer of our own over the summer with Lewis stepping back from the pod due to his continued living in Australia (plenty of sharks there for him as it turns out), and we’ll miss him. However, it also means we’re welcoming anyone who’d like to come and have a chat to us on the pod to do so – if you’d like to please get in touch with us through X/Twitter, or our contact details are on the podcast. All of that story and more is available in our season preview which is out now! 

Ending last season with a gutsy, slightly disappointing but probably justified semi-final loss to Bath seems a long time ago now, and it’s easy to forget what a great run of form the team was on for the second half of last season rising from 8th in the table to finish 3rd (and nearly 2nd!). 

It’s that form that we’re hoping to see continue against Harlequins today, a team who are always exciting and difficult to play against and are packed full of international quality. With the weather set fair it’s likely we’ll see a lot of tries today, as well as big hits and of course hopefully a Sale win to start the season off in the perfect fashion. So whether you’re watching Sale live for the first time, the hundredth time or you’ve lost count – let’s be loud and proud behind the boys and enjoy another fantastic season as a Sharks fan! 

Enjoy the game,  

Alex and James 

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