Sale have always had one very big shadow on their doorstep. Just over four miles from their Heywood Road ground was one of the world’s biggest football clubs, Manchester United.
The likes of Gloucester, Bath, Northampton Saints, Worcester Warriors, and Exeter Chiefs and, to a certain extent, Leicester Tigers and Bristol Bears are the leading sporting teams in their towns and cities.
But Sale, Newcastle Falcons and London clubs have never had that luxury, competing with big football teams.
While Sale were going for promotion in 1993-94, club legend Steve Smith hit upon the idea of changing the club’s name in a bid to make them more appealing to the Manchester sporting public. He wanted the club to embrace their neighbours and became Manchester United Rugby Football Club, believing that he had the connections to make it happen.
The Manchester United chairman at the time was Martin Edwards, a teammate of Smith’s at Winslow rugby club in the early Seventies before he focused his attention on the football club.
Smith said at the time: “Personally, I’d go the whole hog and change the name of the club. I would like it to be called Manchester United Rugby Football Club. The name will be a very emotive issue, but my idea would be preferable to something like Sale Park.
We need a name that identifies us with the Manchester area to give rugby union a real chance.
“We have this little club down the road at Old Trafford that nobody can ever beat. We have rugby league on our doorstep, which leaves union the third sport. What we have to realise is that we have the resources and the population to be able to compete against Bath and the rest on an equal footing.
“As one of our die hards said at a recent club debate, we are fighting not for the future of Sale but the future of rugby union in Manchester.”
The bold idea never, for whatever reason, got off the ground and Sale, who are playing in National League One these days, retain their name and are a completely separate outfit to Sale Sharks.
The Sharks, who took their name in 1999 when clubs adopted second names for marketing purposes, do ironically have a name that links to the Manchester area that Smith wanted almost 30 years ago.
Although it’s not widely known, they have, since March 1997, been registered at Companies House as Manchester Sale Rugby Club limited.
The idea of a name change was again muted in 2014 when Leeds Carnegie became Yorkshire Carnegie in a bid to make themselves attractive to a wide audience.
The idea of a name change for the Sharks always ran into strong opposition from the club’s supporters, and then director of rugby, Steve Diamond, ruled out a move.
“We won’t be going down that route.
“If I mention anything about changing the name of Sale, I tend to get hit by a barrage of emails, so I think Sale Sharks is the best name for us,” he said.
Featured photo by form PxHere
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