Sale Sharks Supporters Club to donate money to buy Trafford Schools Rugby new training equipment

Sale Sharks Supporters Club are delighted to announce they are donating all the required money to enable Trafford Schools Rugby to buy new training equipment for the 2023/24 season.

Trafford Schools Rugby was the brainchild of Joe Clark, a former Sale Sharks player. Under 12s were missing out on the chance to play rugby, in light of football moving to Sunday in the Trafford area. The aim of the programme is to provide rugby playing opportunities to non-rugby playing schools, into the traditional Saturday schools’ fixture. The programme has seen a huge growth in the last number of months, with several local schools represented within the team.

The boys train at Trafford MV RC on a Wednesday, where Joe is assisted by Sale Sharks legend, Steve Hanley.

Steve Hanley said “The generous support of the SSSC will enable many local lads to have the opportunity to play rugby and show they can not only compete but excel against the schools where rugby is still on the PE curriculum. Our year 8 squad is made up from 9 comprehensive schools across Trafford that aren’t offering competitive rugby on Saturday morning, and we go and play those schools that do”.

“We are currently putting together a year 7 squad and hopefully in 3 years’ time we will be giving 120 lads the opportunity to play rugby”.

As well as encouraging closer ties between supporters and Sale Sharks, through social events involving senior players, the SSSC aims to support local & regional rugby development.

Joe Parsonage, SSSC Chairman, said “When we discussed the school’s program with Joe and Steve, we immediately saw how it would benefit rugby in the Trafford area and the North West as a whole. We certainly hope this is a long-term venture we can support again the years to come. It would be wonderful if one of the lads could make it to the Sharks first team”.