By Sarah Braide
August 14 2002

Graeme Bond HAS signed for Sale after all! What a good job they did of keeping us guessing until the very last moment! The news of his signing was first released a couple of months ago but after that announcement, comments from Bond suggested he had not in fact committed himself to Sale. But at Sale's press day on Wednesday Jim Mallinder was able to confirm that the Australian would be playing for Sale next season.

Following Graeme Bond's original 'signing', Wallaby coach Eddie Jones was quoted as saying:

"Graeme indicated to me that he hasn't signed with the English club, and therefore he will continue to be selected for the Australian A team until we find out something to the contrary."

It was thought that Bond wanted to wait to see how his international prospects shaped up over the summer before making a decision on whether or not to move to the UK.

	Graeme Bond
Position	Winger/centre
Height	180cm
Weight	95kg
Date of birth	21/5/74
Place of birth	Papua New Guinea
Career	Australian Barbarians 1995, Australian Under 21s, NSW Waratahs (1996-1998), Australian A, Australian Wallabies 5 Caps, ACT Brumbies (2000-2002)
International debut	18/8/01 against
Last test	25/11/01 against

Well done to Jim Mallinder, Steve Diamond and the rest of the management at Sale for securing this signature. And all those people that gloated about the seeming failure of the signing can eat their words now.