View From The 22

We are just about at the halfway point of the League campaign for this season.
I watched most of the latest matches and looking at the table it is not looking good.
To reach top four we are going to need the current top teams to lose at least 3 more games
than us in the run up.
We will hopefully be a better side with all our players fit, but realistically I expect us to
be in a fight for 5'th place ( I am not expecting us to have a fully fit side at any point in light
of potential call up to the Six Nations ).
Of the top sides who are all playing good rugby, the only one I am surprised about is Bristol.
Injuries ( to the sides above us ) might come to our aid, but I still can't see us getting to fourth
place. Once again our early season form has been our Achilles Heel.
Anyone more optimistic ?

Currently Bristol are 4th with 11 points more than us.
It is mathematically possible for Sale to reach top 4. Realistically? No, will not happen.
I would say we will be hard pressed to reach 5th. I'm thinking 6th is best we will achieve this season for reasons of injuries and/or internationals.

We're still to play Bristol twice, plus Bath and Northampton at home... anything can happen between now and end of season, and at least we get our chance to try and add to the top 4's loss count. Plus, if we can take down Bristol both home and away - that could help us slip into 4th... we face off against Bristol end of season too, could end up being a real spicey battle for 4th place.

Yes, I am optimistic. Sharks will put up a good fight... we always do. And if we don't get it this season, sure we'll get it the next... We might not win all the trophies, but it's always exciting!

Form is so erratic in so many sides it's hard to really predict anything,

Preseason I predicted 7th or 8th and I think I'm probably still expecting about that - maybe bump it to 6th/7th as Quins appear to be in freefall (though have a win over Saracens under their belt so who knows if they'll switch on again)

Without looking at the fixtures I think the second half of the season is much nicer than the first, so maybe we do mount some monumental charge for the top 4 - though that would require a lot of other results going our way, and also us being able to maintain form for 2 or more games in a row

We need to win all our home games to mount any kind of top 4 challenge. We haven't.

It looks like this:

Bears A
Saints H
Chiefs A
Bath H
Sar H
Quins A
Glo A
Tigers H
NRB A
Bears H

Looks pretty tough to me.

Even the Red Budgies A might not be a gimme.

We have had only 8 matches with 10 to go. We have only beaten teams below us at home. We have lost to some of the better teams, and 2 of those defeats were by only one point. We have had the worst injury run for a while and probably suffered more than any other Prem team and we lost quite a few from Lions rest up and England Autumn internationals call ups. We have played very well at times and the morale looks high. The exit of our head coach half way through the season probably means that there has been some conflict of ideas or clash of personality. We have had new coaches and temporary loss of our defence coach to England with our old defence coach chipping in.
Some of these issues are resolved and others are resolving. We have announced 2 class signings in addition to our younger players gaining valuable experience. I think there is hope and grounds for optimism.
Watching the recording of the Quins game told me a lot of things I missed at the stadium. Vermeulen is playing very well. James Harper is not the liability he was a month ago. It’s worth competing at the lineout intermittently as if the opposition throw is not straight it’s automatically a win for us. Raffi for all his detractors is a class act. He is a country mile better and more talented than Mitchell, Spencer and JVPoorpass. It’s a shame Louw isn’t a shade bigger as he is beginning to gel well. Rob Du Preez is now the second highest points scorer for Sale Sharks after Charlie Hodgson- that’s quite an achievement. We finally played well in front of a reasonable sized crowd of 8000 who may actually come back. It’s a shame people don’t bring their gifted flags every week as it looks impressive. Interesting to see Ben Curry sitting behind a laptop in the line of seated coaches. Gus hardly box kicked. George Gershwin looks very pacy and we need to see more than a few minutes of him.

The new signings do give hope for next season especially if there are more of them.
However, this season is a different matter. If Raffi can exceed Spencer over his career, then I
will be happy. Spencer has all that I could wish for Raffi, pace, a good boot and nous.
I am exceedingly glad that we have finally realised that we need Raffi on the pitch in any guise.
He has that touch of magic that excites. The down side is that any callups seriously affects
our team. I just wish we could have a contiguous season with no interruptions.

Anything better than 4th bottom will be well above my expectations at this point.

Happy New Year!!!