Ground Review...Sale's AJ Bell Stadium

An insight into my thoughts as we made our way to the AJ Bell Stadium from our swanky airbnb in the Northern Quarter to see Sale take on Toulon in the Champions Cup.

WHY IS THERE SO MUCH TRAFFIC? WHY ARE SO MANY F-ING PEOPLE AT THE TRAFFORD CENTRE ON A F-ING FRIDAY NIGHT? WHY DO SALE NOT PLAY IN SALE? WHY DOES IT TAKE AN HOUR BY CAR TO GET TO THE GROUND FROM THE CENTRE OF MANCHESTER? WHAT WAS WRONG WITH STOCKPORT? ARRRGGHHHHH!!!

The makers of the M60 flyover were inadvertently the pioneers of the 'Drive-In' Sporting Event

Apparently, talking to other fans, I am not alone in these thoughts.

The ground itself was very nice. Good beers too. Didn't get to meet Brian Mujati though.

If the new owners are wondering while Sale struggle to get traction in a sports market flooded with well connected, well supported and top flight clubs, addressing the fact the ground is in the middle of an industrial swampland would be a good first point of self-reflection.

The Uber driver explained 'You might do better on foot'...

Sale is a club that is solidly good but always just seems to miss its mark to be great. It sells its best players to Wasps, its amateur(ish) club has a better ground than they do and they have put off at least three away fans from ever bothering to go there again. In light of what I saw as a 2/3rds filled stadium, this is not a market they can necessarily ignore.

Oh no, I thought he'd stopped all this...

It comes a time in a man's life when he simply has to stop. Stop because your body is screaming at you. Stop dreaming of one day being a professional sportsman. Stop putting life on hold just in case Saracens come in at the 11th hour to sign you up like a rugby version of Dennis Quaid's 'The Rookie'. Stop thinking 'If I'd only done this then and then that the other time then maybe I could have...'. Just stop.

That time came for me two days ago when I emailed my current rugby club, St Albans RFC, to tell them the boots were well and and truly being hung up. The bulging disc in my neck has yet again become inflamed and I promised myself, my body, my wife, I'd give myself one more go at it and next big injury, the big tap-out. That go has now come to an end. I have become an ex-rugby player. Three knee surgeries, two shoulder surgeries, countless broken ribs, one broken wrist, one broken ankle and the bugling disc have all conspired to create one big metaphorical lump of drag on my person. 

It was inevitable. I've been dropping my phone, cups of tea and lesson resources all over the shop over the last couple of weeks because of the nerve impingement the bulging disc causes The last time this happened it took me nine months of recovery and no sport, so I thought I better get cracking.

There are things I'll miss. Excited anxiety pre-match, cold beers after the game, satisfying delayed onset muscle soreness the day after a match. The ability to eat as much as I wanted on the justification 'I'm in the front row and I need to keep my weight on'. Apparently in normal circles being 5'10 and 18 stone is not acceptable. 

There are things I won't. Coaches who spew the RFU coaching manual like its a work of religious inspiration, delayed onset muscle soreness the five days after you played, the human inequality of finding yourself in the defensive line and having to mark their winger. 

I'm no loss to the sport, to be brutally honest I probably peaked playing wise at school back in 2001. For the last fifteen years I've just about been hanging on, playing in the abject fear of an alternative Saturday spent at the Harlequin shopping centre. 

But rugby is like the Hotel California, you don't ever really leave. So I need to find some way of staying connected with the game. Coaching in time is probably where I'll end up, but for the time being I may reconnect with this blog, see where it takes me. 

Goodbye playing days, hello armchair punditry. My keyboard is being sharpened as we speak. 

Help!

In other boring news...

The International Rugby Board is to rebrand itself as 'World Rugby'.

Christ.

Mickey Rourke to play Gareth Thomas in biopic - eh?

This story has been around for ages but apparently Rourke reignited interest in the project on a US chat show this week.

Mickey Rourke is great and hats off to him for wanting to make the film in the first place but surely this is why casting directors play such an important role in Hollywood?

Firstly Gareth is massive, and so can Rourke be to be fair as his showing in the great 'The Wrestler' would attest to. But things, even in 'The Wrestler', were clearly going south for Rourke.

Secondly, Thomas' accent is thick. And niche. And hard to emulate. American actors sometimes have a tin ear for celtic accents.

Five words: Brad. Pitt. The. Devils. Own.

I personally would love to see a rugby film that doesn't blow like the bloody awful 'Invictus' or the B movie standard 'Forever Strong'. This is a great human story about a player dealing with his own complicated feelings about his sexuality whilst playing a hyper-masculine sport and being in the public eye. I hope to god they go for someone like Chris Hemsworth or someone who could be more believable. If not, Rourke will have to call in Jack Nicholson to play Ieuan Evans and Robert Patrick to be Rob Howley for consistency purposes.

RFU smashes down gender barriers...sort of

Off the back of a fine showing at the Women's Rugby World Cup and the media finally waking up to what a special side this England team is, there was some welcome news today as the RFU announced the women's sevens program will now include 20 full time professional, and most importantly, central contracts. Unlike the men's sevens squad, the women's team is used as a genuine development platform for the 15-a-side game so a lot of the those who won the world cup (about 12) will now be able to train and play as professionals, not that they hadn't been already.

Words fail me how much respect I have for this team. They work normal jobs, but train as pros would and still have the energy to give so much back the community they are a part of.

As a father of a young daughter worried about an alarming lack of positive female role models in the British mainstream media, I will definitely be pushing her to the exceptional examples of Alphonsi, Waterman and Scarratt.

She kicks, she scores and I would probably not tackle her.

http://www.espn.co.uk/england/rugby/story/238727.html 

ALS and the ICE challenge

To my shame I didn't have much of a clue about ALS before this whole campaign started. All I know is that famous people having icy water chucked on them is never boring, much like cat videos on youtube...

Here are few of my favourites from the rugby world. However, in a sport in which ice baths are common practice, does it lose some of its impact?

Not really. In other circles, the Rosie Huntingon-Whiteley bird going out with that Jason Statham is worth a look, but we don't go in for that sort of thing here. This is a rugby blog and you can all use google.