By LOUD Shark
August 23 2009

Imagine, its 2015 and the Rugby World Cup has come to town. With England winning the vote to host the world cup, and a couple of recent articles in The Times, I got to thinking, how might Sale Sharks be shaping up by that time……………………………………………………? By the time 2015 rolls around, we will all be that little bit older, and hopefully wiser. I was thinking of all the players that we have in the main squad and the jets for this season, and wondered how many of them, might still be playing for us by the time the world cup rolls around?

James Gaskell "Jamma", has already been tipped by one writer, to be part of the world cup team. But, who might be left to play for us?

I have gone a bit "statto" on this one, so I apologise if I bore anyone to death? I promise it won't happen again! Please don't forget, that this is a whim of my imagination, food for thought so to speak, just for fun?

Most teams, as we know, never stay together without a few changes here and there along the way, but, let us just pretend that we had a choice of the players that we have for this season.

The following squad, positions and ages etc are taken from the official site.

(I have used 35 years old as the bench mark for retiring players for the purposes of this illustration.  I am older than that, so please don't go all ageist on me?)

Sale Sharks
Name	Position	D.O.B	Age 2009	Age 2015
Alex Shaw	Back Row	31/03/1987	22	28
Andrew Sheridan	Prop	01/11/1979	30	36
Anitelea Tuilaga	Centre/Wing	06/06/1986	23	29
Ben Cohen	Wing	14/09/1978	31	37
Ben Roberts	Hooker	?		6
Ben Vernon	Flanker	04/04/1992	17	23
Brent Cockbain	Lock	15/11/1974	35	41
Carl Ferns	Back Row	28/05/1989	20	26
Charlie Hodgson	Fly Half	12/11/1980	29	35
Chris Bell	Centre	07/01/1983	26	32
David Doherty	Wing	28/01/1987	22	28
David Bishop	Centre	22/09/1983	26	32
David Seymour	Flanker	27/09/1984	25	31
David Tait	Back Row	05/07/1987	22	28
Dan Birchall	Prop	02/10/1988	21	27
Chris Jones	Second Row	24/06/1980	29	35
Chris Leck	Scrum Half	21/05/1986	23	29
Dean Schofield	Second Row	19/01/1979	30	36
Dwayne Peel	Scrum Half	31/08/1981	28	34
Eifion Lewis Roberts	Prop	13/02/1981	28	34
Gavin Kerr	Prop	04/03/1977	32	38
Jack Forster	Prop	19/03/1987	22	28
James Jones	Flanker	26/02/1981	28	34
Kristian Ormsby	Lock/Back Row	12/04/1980	29	35
Lee Thomas	Centre	02/06/1984	25	31
Luke Abraham	Back Row	26/09/1983	26	32
Mahonri Schwalger	Hooker	15/09/1978	31	37
Marc Jones	Hooker	03/04/1987	22	28
Marika Vakacegu	Full Back/Wing	09/06/1983	26	32
Mark Cueto	Wing/Full Back	26/12/1979	30	36
Martin Halsall	Prop	25/12/1984	25	31
Matthew Tait	Full Back	06/02/1986	23	29
Neil Briggs	Hooker	01/06/1985	24	30
Nick Macleod	Fly Half/Full Back	23/03/1983	26	32
Oriol Ripol Fortuny	Wing	06/09/1975	34	40
Richard Wigglesworth	Scrum Half	09/06/1983	26	32
Rob O'Donnell	Prop	15/12/1985	24	30
Sean Cox	Second Row	16/01/1985	24	30
Selorm Kuadey	Wing	05/05/1987	22	28
Sisaro Kayamaibole	Back Row	06/03/1981	28	34
Will Cliff	Scrum Half	17/10/1988	21	27
Sale Jets
Alex Waddingham	Flanker	17/06/1989	20	26
Daniel Hall	Lock	30/07/1991	18	24
Ed Styles	Full Back/Wing	07/12/1989	20	26
Edward Stobart	Wing/Full Back	18/11/1990	19	25
James Gaskell	Lock	20/05/1990	19	25
James Irlam	Wing	09/10/1989	20	26
James Williams	Wing	07/09/1990	19	25
Jonny Kennedy	Centre/Wing	16/02/1990	19	25
Jordan Davies	Full Back/Wing	12/03/1990	19	25
Lee Imiolek	Prop	21/09/1990	19	25
Mark Atkinson	Fly Half	08/03/1990	19	25
Ryan Glynn	Scrum Half	27/09/1991	18	24
Simon McIntyre	Prop	19/03/1991	18	24
Tom Brady	Centre/Full Back	10/02/1991	18	24
Tom Holmes	Lock	05/01/1990	19	25

 

Dark blue indicates the players that would be above the fictional retirement point.

Andrew Sheridan,  Dean Schofield, Mark Cueto and Oriol Ripol  are the main names that stand out immediately to me. Imagine not seeing Big Ted and Deano, our new captian packing down in the scrum? What about Cuets and Raspberry, not seeing them in their pomp, flying down the wing? Who would replace them all?

Brent Cockbain may not be a big loss in some fans eyes, but, he is at least a big unit, ready to play hard for his team mates? That leaves Ben Cohen,  Gavin Kerr and Mahonri Schwalger, not tried and tested for us yet, but, may have turned out to be the players that we need?

Light blue indicates the players that will be nearing the point of retirement.

Sir Charles could be playing his last season at fly half? Chris Jones, Eifion and Dwayne Peel, Imagine, with those guys and Big Ted, and Deano, not, in the forwards? What a big hole they all would leave?

James Jones, may have been a shining star for us, Kristian Ormsby may well have played the best 5 years of rugby of his life? And who is to say that Sisa playing in the back row, would not help to make the most cohesive pack that Sale have ever had?

Whilst it may be true that some Sale legends may leave us at this point, true Sharks each and every one, just cast your eyes over all the potential talent that we still have there. We may not have one of the biggest squads in the premiership currently, but, with Kingsley's vision of home grown talent coming through, not a team of international super stars, like Munster, he has been recently quoted as saying, you can clearly see, that under his leadership, we could become a force to be reckoned with?

Combined with the jets, out of 57 players, we would only be losing between 8 and 15 players. Still a decent sized squad? I am sure that we have all seen clubs with less players than that on their books?

Recent departures have left a lot of fans wondering what will happen to our beloved Sharks in the coming seasons. Perhaps this is one scenario that paints a much brighter picture?

I know this is an idealistic future, where players don't get injured, don't move to other clubs for any number of reasons, and we have a team that gels together and plays for each other, week in week out, but, surely the future is a little bit rosier? As I mentioned before, food for thought...........................................