Sale Sharks Rugby Union
USN are proud to sponsor the Sale Sharks
Back when professionalism entered the world of Rugby Union, attendances at
Sale home matches were under a thousand. Yet nowadays The Sharks play in front of
ten times that number at their new home Edgeley Park. Sale's breathtaking rise to
prominence under Welsh player-coach, Paul Turner, had been an exhilarating ride,
but certainly not without its ups and downs. Since promotion to the top-flight in
1994, not only the Club, but the game of Rugby Union as a whole, have seen dramatic
changes. During the nineties, despite thrilling displays under Turner, and his successor
John Mitchell, both club and ground struggled to keep a grip on the demanding commercial
and financial realities of running a professional rugby club. For example, Sale
took twenty thousand fans to Twickenham for the 1997 Pilkington Cup Final.
The Sale Sharks finished eleventh and tenth in the 12-strong Premiership table in
the first two years of the new Millennium. In fact, it took the coaching merger
of two former Sale players, Jim Mallinder and Steve Diamond, to produce a team that
were 2002 runners-up and qualified for the Heineken Cup. That year the team also
went on to capture the Parker Pen Shield at Oxfords Kassam Stadium, defeating Pontypridd
25-22 in what the press trumpeted as the greatest day in the Clubs history.
USN are delighted to announce that prop forward Aston Croall has become
a USN Ambassador. He joined Sale Sharks in June 2010 from Harlequins on a three
year deal. Aston (25) is 6 feet tall, and weighs 18st 7lbs. and joined his new colleagues
for training at Carrington last Monday. He grew up on the Isle of Sheppey, and first
played for Saracens, where he gained England representative honours at Under-19
and Under-21 level. He was the club’s captain in the Guinness ‘A’
League final last season against Leicester Tigers.
- Get the latest Sale Sharks team news, shop online, & purchase match
tickets at the official website www.salesharks.com