... and for 5 points what year was it released?

And wouldn't it be great if Jim could fix it for us to pick up 4 or 5 points this weekend to get our play-off bid back on course and restore confidence in the camp.

After a disastrous defence of their thoroughly deserved GP triumph last season when they could only finish 10^th, Sale have well and truly bounced back this term and another trip to Twickenham in May is a realistic possibility for the Cheshire outfit (why didn't they call themselves the Cheshire Cats instead of the Sale Sharks?).

The long term injuries to Charlie Hodgson, Andrew Sheridan and Jason White would have been enough to stretch any team, and the added ‘burden' of having to compete in the Heineken Cup with a depleted squad proved too much for our feeder club.

Their campaign this season started on a worrying note with a heavy defeat at Newcastle (it made our efforts against the Falcons look pretty good), and their away form since was nothing to get excited about until two weeks ago when they inflicted the first home league defeat on Leicester since:

• a) Noah's Ark was an aircraft carrier
• b) October when they lost to Gloucester, but the one before that was ages ago

This win completed a league double over the Tigers- who can tell me the last team to achieve that feat? To demonstrate the topsy-turvy nature of Premiership rugby they went and followed the ultimate away win with almost the ultimate home defeat when they went down 15-22 at home to Worcester, who had been so poor in recent outings they even managed to lose to us!

Sheridan and White will obviously be away on national duty, as will Richard Wrigglesworth after a very impressive debut in France. On the subject of France, what odds would you have got on their selectors choosing Lionel Faure and not the ogre that is Sebastian Chabal for their opening games? OK, perhaps overall he didn't live up to the hype, but staring out the All Blacks doing their Haka will be one of the enduring memories of the tournament. I wonder if Chris Jack still remembers......

After failing to make an impression in the first three matches Faure has been dropped so he may well be packing down against Census or Cobus.  Other notable presences in the pack could be the Fernadez-Lobbe Brothers from Argentina, plus England rejects Chris Jones and Magnus Lund.

Prince Charles (he's never going to get the big job either, is he?) will be pulling the strings behind the scrum where he will be aided and abetted by Luke McAlister who is proving to be one of the signings of the season. On the wing Mark Cueto will be hoping to prove that the England selectors as well as the Australian touch judges don't know what they are doing, although he has also played a few games at fullback again this season. Can anyone explain the theory behind him going to 15? Talk about smashing up a yacht to make a raft....

Sale made the news recently when the baby boom that has affected half the team and back-room staff made the national press. The reason for this activity was put down to a lot of players being injured and having time on their hands. I suggest following a different line of enquiry- how many of these babies are 5 feet tall with long black hair and beards?

We are Saling.....

Our 22-9 win against Sale last season was one of those very few occasions when we weren't chewing our finger nails going into the last minute as we coasted to a fairly comfortable victory, whereas the season before we got tanked 40-32 having been over 20 points adrift at one stage. On that day Hodgson, Chabal, Cueto and our nemesis Elvis simply run us ragged and looked every inch champions in waiting. Of course we were to wreak our revenge later in the season when the Messiah Eddie Jones walked across the Manchester Ship Canal and we recorded a victory that could not have figured in anyone's wildest dreams (a bit like Wuss did to them last weekend!)

Our biggest home win against Sale was 56-28 almost 8 years ago to the day, in a match that will sadly be remembered for the terrible spinal injury to Andy Blyth in the first few seconds of the match. Does anyone have any news on how Andy is recovering- there does not seem to be any info on the internet?

[NB If anyone wishes to donate to the PRA's benevolent fund which supports players whose career is cut short, it may be done here: http://www.justgiving.com/prabf/donate/  Some info on Andy Blyth is here: http://www.prarugby.com/69_192.php Ed]

Going back further still, my first Sarries league game was at Bramley Road in 1995 when Sale beat us 24-9. I remember the first scrum taking about 10 minutes to complete and thinking "why am I here?" After that, Dave Baldwin proceeded to steal just about every Sarries lineout so whilst the scrimmaging has improved, the lineouts sadly haven't!

Old Boys re-union

It's now 4 years since Steve Diamond led the breakout of the ‘Manchester 7' when the bright lights of Watford proved an irresistible temptation for the Mancunians. Of that group Andy Kyriacou will probably be starting his first league game on Sunday, Matt Cairns will have to be on the bench and he may have Ian Fullarton alongside him.

Right- lets fire up the Quattro!

PS Hasn't Gene Hunt moved down from Manchester to London as well?

PPS Why is it that since ‘Ashes to Ashes' has been on the telly Sarries form has gone back to 2002?

Steve Bardell

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