sale of the AJ Bell stadium

Sale Sharks are set to travel to the Newcastle Falcons at the Kingston Park Stadium on Friday night and will aim to make it 2 wins from 2 games so far this Premiership season.

The Sharks got their season off to the perfect start, as they won 32-23 in their last league game against the Northampton Saints, securing them a crucial bonus point.

Meanwhile newly promoted Newcastle were impressive in their 12-19 away win to Bath.

The last time these two sides met in Premiership action back in the 2018/19 Premiership Cup, it was the Falcons celebrating that day, after a resounding 12-28 win, before they fell to eventual winners Northampton in the semi-finals.

In terms of league competition, Sonatale Toluka was the hero for Newcastle at St James’ Park as they won a close contest 22-17.

Friday’s game comes after Sale was officially cleared by the RFU of failing to abide by the current COVID-19 regulations. With up to 27 positive cases at the club. they had been accused of partying after the Premiership Cup final win.

The club’s director of rugby, Steve Diamond, expressed his relief over the RFU’s decision.

“I’m delighted with the decision that we’ve been exonerated,” said the 52-year-old “What happened to us could have happened to anybody. It happened to Wasps to a lesser extent and it’s recently happened to Leicester. We were the first and we were victims because we had a chance to go into the top four.”

The game with Newcastle could be the last time Sale plays without fans at their games. Depending on what tier is imposed on Greater Manchester by the government, those in ‘tier 1’ will be permitted up to 4000 fans in outdoor sporting venues.

It is expected however that Sale, much like the rest of the GMCA, will be put into a strict ‘tier 3’ level of restrictions.

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