Sharks find the local waters are none too friendly

IT IS tempting to suggest that if South African-laden Sale are serious about leaving their current home in Salford in favour of a location closer to their collective heart, they should apply for planning permission somewhere between Johannesburg and Durban. A plot of land on the eastern edge of the Free State sounds about right. As it is, they have set their eyes on a site near their modest old stamping ground of Heywood Road, where Jason Robinson, Mark Cueto, Steve Hanley, Charlie Hodgson and other proper northerners once tripped the light fantastic – usually in front of a passionate crowd who had travelled to the game in the same Ford Escort. Thanks to Trafford Council’s sudden withdrawal of support for a £100m development at Crossford Bridge, the Sale money men may have to turn their gaze elsewhere. The elected representatives were swayed by “thousands” of objections from local townsfolk, some driven by environmental concerns and others, no doubt, by good, oldfashioned nimbyism. These things happen, even to the wealthiest sporting benefactors. Steve Lansdown, billionaire owner of Bristol, was hounded off his own blueprint for a new stadium close to the village of Long Ashton and rebuilt Ashton Gate instead. (Full disclosure: your columnist lives in Long Ashton). But while the new Ashton Gate is pulling in the crowds, Sale are stuck in a place nobody likes. Or is it that they’re playing a sport about which too few people in the Greater Manchester area care nearly enough? If the latter is the case, it will never matter where they play.