USAP RU vs Racing Metro April 16th, Camp Nou.
The same day Barcelona play Real Madrid in the Bernabeu and plans are to connect the two somehow.
According to this morning's newspaper the aim is for over 40,000 people to attend.

They know that no bugger would show up for it without a little twist of the big soccer match.

Seems like the Australia game was a one off. South African forwards were tremendous but deary me, England were awful. England soundly outplayed and gave away far too many penalties against a South Africa side which has had a very ordinary 2010.

Domestically Sale lose again but luckily for them both Newcastle and Leeds are in the same division.

I'm not sure really. It's just rumours at the moment and not even in club rumours. It's something the media have started. The 2 teams he's been linked with don't really suit his style of play for me. Northampton have got Myler and Geraghty too. Saracens are a bit of a flamboyant and glamorous and I would hope he doesn't go there. I would have thought he'd be with us for good now. But if he leaves then that's fine. He's the leading points scorer of all time in the Premiership and as I said - I think he's a fantastic player. It's his testimonial season and so if any time is right then it's probably now

South Africa totally bullied us up front. I think it was more a case of them being so strong that England couldn't even play. A respectable scoreline.

Sale - people on our forum are taking positives from getting a losing bonus point away. But Exeter are the new boys in their first season of top flight rugby and I'm not happy about conceding 3 tries to them. They've made an excellent start but we need to be beating teams like that.

I had Exeter by 6 in my predictions league


As I said, I think both You and Newcastle and indeed Exeter will be safe this year simply because Leeds are there. Any news on the game at the Reebok?

Over 9,000 tickets were sold when they last made an announcement a few weeks ago. I get the feeling it's stalled a bit as I did all along. I could see it getting to about 15,000 tickets sold and then struggling to get rid of the rest. There's some decent offers on and the advertising and offers seem to be good. For example you can trade in Tesco clubcard vouchers for a ticket. I think they'll get a respectable amount in. We've done a good job of marketing ourselves with activity days at local schools and the like.

Although if the Wigan fans are to be believed then we're trying to steal 15,000 fans off them alone. So there's a sell out right there!

9,000 a few weeks ago is great going. A predicted crowd of 15,000 is not good enough.
I think the Wigan thing stems from Mick Hogan (or maybe someone else at Sale) saying the club were aiming to be 'the North West's [irugby[/i club'. Ian Thornley, youth coach, recently another young player (or so I was told) and Mick Hogan himself have all gone from Wigan to Stockport so you can see the why some Wigan fans are a littled concerned.

We are the North West's Rugby Club to be fair. Our fanbase and our attendances are two very strange things. People on here can laugh and be arrogant all they want, but merchandise wise and places you see fans - we must be behind only United and City. Our fanbase come from all over the North West. Sale, Stockport, Manchester, Macclesfield, Sandbach, Stoke, Bury. All these areas have a large amount of fans. Then there are fans from elsewhere in the North and all over the Country. Pretty much everywhere you go around here you'll see somebody with a Sale shirt on. That's why it's disappointing to only be getting 6,000 some weeks. We put on good ticket offers last week for the Northampton game and got a much bigger crowd than usual. So it's either the Rugby on the field or the prices that are putting people off. Probably a collection of both. The Railway End where I sit is £10 for adults. After that the cheapest adult ticket is in The Cheadle End and is £28. It's too expensive for mediocre Rugby at a 4th division Football ground

And I appreciate the Wigan connection. But I think some of them have read more into it than they need to because it's a Union team. Manchester United and Manchester City have been advertising in the papers and on the radio about tickets recently. I don't see anybody complaining there. Obviously if we're to get 4x our current attendance in then we're going to try and tap a few different markets. It wouldn't make sense otherwise. I haven't seen a slogan that says "Come to see top flight Rugby at the Reebok Stadium. Abandon your favourite Rugby League team for life and get a season ticket". It's just a big day for the club. I don't see many United fans moaning the one day a year the Super League final is held at Old Trafford or many England fans moaning when American Football is at Wembley

Orrell may have something to say about that bold claim

But seriously, ahead of Liverpool and Everton?

What do you class as a fan? Someone who has a shirt and might watch a game on tv but won't go to the ground isn't much of a fan in my eyes. As you say, Sale have a massive catchment area with no other rugby union competition. Crowds of 6,000 are awful. Wigan average around 16,000 and that's with top level rivals within spitting distance.

Yu wouldn't think it was the price that put people off, especially considering your fans come from some of the places you've mentioned.

To be fair I think you've got a bit carried away there. Most Wigan fans don't know anything about Sale. I'd confidently say even fewer are concerned about Sale rugby union taking fans.


I think many people stay true to their sport in that they may watch another sport on television or go to a special event for a day out but they wouldn't make a habit of it. I went to the Roses cricket match last year on a lads' day out. About twenty of my friends went to the England v Argentina rugby union test match at Old Trafford. Much in the same way that many rugby union fans watch the Challenge Cup on BBC and Super League on Sky whenever it's on but wouldn't dream of getting a season ticket at Wigan, Warrington or Widnes, I won't be rushing to go to another cricket game and the majority of my mates won't be going down to Stockport to get their Sharks season ticket.

Well not the North West but at least the Greater Manchester area. You don't see many Liverpool or Everton shirts within a 20 mile radius of south Manchester, where as United and City you probably do. I once went to watch Grimsby Town vs Bury and there was a woman who gave us directions to the ground who had a Sale hoodie on. We get everywhere. It has very much turned into a North West regional side in my opinion. Whenever there's talk of a new ground the name of Sale doesn't even get mentioned in terms of a location which is a shame. We're the only professional club between Leicester and Leeds in the sport. That gives us quite a market to aim at. Saying that, I'm not sure if Rotherham or Doncaster are professional but we're certainly the only top flight club.

A fan is somebody who calls themselves a fan. It's not up to me to judge. I just mean if the amount of people who walk around in Sale shirts got to the games then the attendance figures would be much bigger. The year after we won the league we were getting over 10,000 every game and the season before last our average was 9,200 so the people are certainly there. I understand the point about Wigan and other Rugby League clubs and so I'm not going to get into a debate about who's bigger and what not. But of Wigans average crowd of 16,000 - probably 12,000 come within 5 miles of the town. The same with St Helens and Warrington. Rugby League is a lot more territorial and that's why the away crowd figures are a lot more like Football. I once read Warrington fans saying 3,500 fans wasn't a big away crowd for a certain team. Yet today we took around 150 to Exeter and that's quite a lot for us for such a distance.
Plus, a lot of people that go to watch Sale aren't so much fans of us - more fans of the game. Because we're the only professional team in such a distance fans of the game, rather than the club will come and watch us. You see amateur rugby jerseys of teams from all over the show in the crowd. Not to mention a fair few Rugby League tops.

And those areas aren't all that wealthy. Prices are still relative. Why would you pay £28-47 to sit at Edgeley Park? At least with the nicer grounds the higher prices are justified

I wouldn't say I'm getting carried away. I am just basing it on what I read over on the Wigan forum. If any Wigan fans think I'm slagging you off then I'm not. I've always looked out for Wigan's results and went to the away game at Widnes in the Challenge Cup and sat with their fans at the Grand Final.

And for your last point I'm agreeing with you.

You could always move back to Sale

...only joking


Sale are the only top flight rugby union club for many a mile which is why its difficult to understand why the crowds are what they are. We're not talking about a regionalised minority sport, like rugby league. Union is a global sport and the second biggest in the UK.
Can't say I look out for Sale scores but I always keep an eye on Orrell Anvil. What are the chances of Sale redeveloping Edgeley Park? If not what is the alternative? If you are to truly be the North West's rugby union club could you up sticks and move to a different town or city?